Russian energy giant Gazprom and Slovenia have signed a final deal to build the Slovenian part of the gas pipeline known as South Stream . The deal was signed by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Slovenia’s Plinovodi d.o.o. General Director Marjan Eberlinc in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, reported RIA Novosti. The South Stream pipeline will transport up to 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas to central and southern Europe along the Black Sea seabed, diversifying Russian gas routes away from transit countries such as Ukraine. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s instruction, Gazprom has accelerated the South Stream pipeline’s construction schedule, with work now to begin before the end of 2012. Commercial deliveries of natural gas to Europe are expected to start in the first quarter of 2016 and the project is set to reach its designed capacity of 63 billion cu m in 2018. The project’s cost, including the pipeline’s overland sections, is estimated at $16 billion.

South Stream with lenght about 900 km will run under the Black Sea and through Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Austria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece and Italy.

On the South Stream official web page is written that according to the consensus forecast by the world’s leading forecast centers, Europe’s annual demand for additional gas import may reach 80 billion cubic meters by 2020 and surpass 140 billion cubic meters by 2030.