OREANDA-NEWS. May 25, 2009. Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said Friday that the drafting of agreements to be signed with the two remaining European countries (Slovenia and Austria) that have not yet worked out the terms for building gas pipeline South Stream gas pipeline is in the final stage.

Last week, Gazprom obtained approval for the gas pipeline to run through Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia and reached an agreement with Italian concern Eni, its project partner, to boost the gas pipeline’s throughput capacity to 63 bcm from the previous 31 bcm. “Over the past two or three weeks negotiations over signing inter-governmental agreements have been conducted in both Slovenia and Austria, and we believe the relevant documents are in the final stage of approval,” Shmatko said. Slovenia is to sign an agreement in June, Slovenian Economy Minister Matej Lahovnik said. “Slovenia adopted a decision and would like to be a party to the project. We’re working on the final wording of the agreement. I expect the agreement to be signed in June,” he said.