However to do this projects are not Legion

In partnering to Gazprom and ENI on the gas pipeline South Stream project, EDF is involved in a daring undertaking on technical and financial. With a maximum capacity of 63 billion cubic metres per year, this pipeline is intended to link the Russia to the Austria and the Italy, bypassing the Ukraine. To do this, the pipeline must cross the Black Sea, a sea of the deepest in the world for a distance of approximately 900 kilometres. The laying of tubes must be carried out at a depth of up to 2,200 metres in a highly corrosive environment for steel. So far, it has never installed tubes as large capacity at depths of this type. To achieve this goal and to ensure an end 2015 commissioning, a technological leap must be crossed.

Entered into service in 2005, the Blue Stream gas pipeline connects, similarly, the Russia to the Turkey via the Black Sea. But its flow is four times smaller than that of the South Stream and the distance traveled under two times less water (a little less than 400 kilometres). Same observation for the Galsi pipeline, which will connect the Algeria to the Italy from 2012. Flow amounts to only 8 billion cubic metres for a submarine a little more distance of 500 km. The challenge of the project is the cost of the South Stream. For the moment, this cost is not known. Feasibility studies should be completed next year. In the meantime, experts cite amounts ranging from 19 billion to 25 billion euros, the evaluation of the technical difficulties and steel prices. The underwater part alone should require an investment of approximately 8 billion, according to EDF. In comparison, the Nordstream pipeline, which is the Russia to the Germany via the Baltic Sea requires 7.4 billion in total investment.

The other major project Nabucco

In this context, some consider that the South Stream pipeline will not be. "A sum of EUR 25 billion is an amount too high for a project of this type," judge a competitor of EDF. "Applying the transit costs raised recently by the Ukrainian authorities, leads to a sum of just over EUR 2 billion per year." "What return fairly quickly the investment", replicate at EDF. Despite all these technical and financial difficulties, the French electrician said that he had no choice. EDF intends to secure its supply of gas in the long term. However, to do this, projects are not Legion. GDF Suez is already negotiating its entry into the Nordstream pipeline, where the Group should take a 9 stake alongside the German BASF and E.ON and the Dutch Gasunie.

The other major project pipeline, Nabucco, aims to bring gas from the Caspian Sea in Europe, via the Turkey. Valued at EUR 7.9 billion, but without clear sources of supply, Nabucco is pushed by Brussels, which seeks to reduce dependence on energy from Europe to the Russia and supported by the Americans. The project brings together for the time being the German groups RWE and Austrian OMV as well as national societies Botas (Turkey), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), MOL (Hungary) and Transgaz (Romania). Seen as very close to the French State, the electrician held its chances to be allowed by the consortium very low. In 2008, GDF Suez had withdrawn his candidacy because of the opposition of the Turkey. It was the France its position on the Armenian genocide and its opposition to the entry of the Turkey in the European Union.