By a twist of fate, Middle Eastern countries turned out to be the world’s “oil and gas El Dorado.” There is a unique supergiant gas field in the Persian Gulf, with reserves of about 28 trillion cubic meters of gas, which roughly equally belongs to Qatar and Iran
A new stage in competition for the European gas market
Particular interest in the Russian gas pipeline project South Stream was expressed by Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Greece, and Italy. The reasons are obvious — they are the countries most dependent on gas transit supplies from Russia through Ukraine.
In October 2011, there was incorporated an international company, operator of gas pipeline construction South Stream Transport, a joint company of Gazprom (50% of shares), Italian Eni (20%), French EDF Group (15%) and the German Wintershall AG (15%). So Russia started construction of the ground infrastructure of new pipes on our territory — the main gas pipeline, gas-pumping compressor stations and Russkaya onshore terminal.
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