Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Natural gas to be supplied by the South Stream pipeline that Gazprom is building under the Black Sea will meet more than 50% of the energy giant's existing obligations, a Gazprom official said on Monday. The $14 bln South Stream pipeline is expected to annually pump 30 billion cubic meters of Central Asian gas to southern Europe. Serbia and Hungary joined the project, already involving Italy and Bulgaria, earlier this year. Greece announced plans to join South Stream last summer. Sergei Korovin, deputy head of the Gazprom department for foreign economic relations, said that the remaining part of the natural gas would be supplied under new contracts for gas consumption in Europe. Korovin said the South Stream gas supplies were expected to begin in 2013-2014, adding that Gazprom intended to set up joint ventures with all the countries involved in the project.