Russ Oil-Gas

LJUBLJANA, May 22 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom and Slovenia have agreed on a deal extending Russian natural gas supplies for another 15 years, the Russian communications and media minister said on Friday. The current agreement expires next year. Igor Shchyogolev said the agreement was signed between a Gazprom subsidiary and Slovenia's state-controlled Geoplin. The Slovenian economy minister said Slovenia and Russia would sign a deal on the South Stream gas pipeline project in June. South Stream is a rival to the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline, designed to bring gas from Central Asia and the Caspian to Europe bypassing Russia. The EU, nervous about growing energy dependence on Russia, is backing the project despite the current economic crisis.