OREANDA-NEWS. Belgrade hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Dusan Bajatovic, Director General of state-owned Srbijagas.

The meeting addressed the issue of current and winter gas supplies to Serbia.

The meeting participants discussed the progress with the South Stream project. The pipeline route is being designed in Serbia within the project. In the near future the construction permit will be obtained for the South Stream's top-priority section in Serbia.

In 2013 Gazprom supplied Serbia with some two billion cubic meters of gas.

South Stream is Gazprom's global infrastructure project aimed at constructing a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe for the purpose of diversifying the natural gas export routes and eliminating transit risks. The first gas will be supplied via South Stream in late 2015. The gas pipeline will reach its full capacity in 2018. South Stream Serbia joint project company (Gazprom and Srbijagas holding 51 and 49 per cent stakes respectively) is implementing the project in Serbia. The South Stream project was awarded the special status by the resolution of the Serbian Parliament.

In 2013 a long-term contract was signed for Russian gas supplies to Serbia in the amount of up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually for a period of 10 years. Gas is being conveyed via the existing route and in the future - via the South Stream gas pipeline.