OREANDA-NEWS  On 07 October Hogan & Hartson announced that it has been appointed to advise Gazprom on the proposed South Stream Pipeline project.

This is one of the largest pipeline projects in the world, involving the financing, construction, and operation of a pipeline to transport gas from Russia’s Black Sea coast to Western European markets.

Gazprom is the world’s largest gas company, focused on geological exploration, production, transmission, storage, processing, and marketing of gas and other hydrocarbons. The South Stream project is aimed at strengthening European energy security. It is another real step toward executing the Gazprom strategy to diversify the Russian natural gas supply routes.

The project will be led by Hogan & Hartson’s London partners Garry Pegg and Hywel Jones, and will involve corporate, regulatory, finance, construction, EU, and competition advice. Ilya Rybalkin (Moscow) and Jonathan Ivinson (London) will lead on associated matters.

Hogan & Hartson will be leading a consortium of pre-eminent law firms in Europe who will be providing advice on all local law aspects in the transit countries for the pipeline. The law firms are Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov in Bulgaria led by Milan Pandev; Wolf Theiss & Partners in Austria, Hungary, and Serbia led by Andreas Schmid; Elias Paraskevas Attorneys in Greece led by Dimitris Paraskevas; and Bonelli Erede Pappalardo in Italy led by Riccardo Sallustio (London) and Alberto Saravalle (Milan).