Russia and Italy to Join Forces for Gas Pipeline

Russia and Italy are expected to sign an agreement today creating a joint company to construct a major gas pipeline from Russia to Southern Europe.

According to Russian media reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to discuss the pipeline, while Russia’s Gazprom and Italy’s ENI will create a joint company to push the South Stream pipeline through.

Russian officials say the 900km pipeline will run under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria, where it will fork and continue to Italy and Germany.

It will have a capacity of 30 billion cubic metres.

By staff writer