Gazprom to take full control of South Stream Transport

The deals with the minority shareholders of South Stream Transport were previously agreed on by the Gazprom board of directors, the Russian company said in a statement on Monday.

Eni owns a 20% stake in South Stream Transport with Wintershall and EDF holding 15% each.

The move follows the announcement made by Russian president Vladimir Putin in early December that Russia was abandoning plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline and was ready to build another pipeline system to Turkey instead.

Gazprom later said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkish state-owned pipeline company Botas on the construction of a new subsea natural gas pipeline crossing the Black Sea to Turkey.

The South Stream gas pipeline, spearheaded by Gazprom, was planned to carry gas from Russia under the Black Sea, making landfall in Bulgaria and then continuing through Serbia and Hungary towards Austria. The offshore section of the pipeline was planned to have a length of 931 kilometers.