OREANDA-NEWS. September 07, 2010. The South Stream pipeline should be built as fast as the Nord Stream, the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Valdai debating society. “We have already started pipe-laying works in the Baltic Sea, and the first gas transfer through the pipe is scheduled for as soon as 2011.

We do everything quickly, and the South Stream should be built as well fast”, Putin assured the president of the Turkish Center for Foreign Relations and Strategic Analysis, Sinan Ogan, who had asked a question about the South Stream and the Nabucco project.

The Prime Minister replied that the Nabucco was doomed to failure: “The largest problem with Nabucco is the lack of a guaranteed volume of gas for the pipe. It won’t be fully loaded. Russia will not supply anything for the project, Iranian gas fields have not been tapped yet, and Azerbaijan contributes very little gas, and moreover, has already signed a gas supply contract with Russia”, Putin said. “Of course, there is also Turkmenistan, but we are uncertain about its export capacity, as it has already laid a pipeline to China with a 30 bcm throughput”.