Bulgaria and Italy supported the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said after a meeting with his Italian counterpart Pier Luigi Bersani.

The pipeline will transport natural gas from Russia via Bulgaria to Italy. From Italy, the gas could be transported to other European countries.

The project is in its initial phase and its route is not yet fixed. Most probably the pipeline will pass through the Black Sea.

Dimitrov said that according to preliminary calculations, the project would cost more than 10 billion euro.

The construction could be launched only after an intergovernmental agreement and approval from European institutions.

During their meeting Dimitrov and Bersani revised Bulgarian-Italian trade and economic relations. Large Italian companies were interested in investing in Bulgaria, especially in the energy sector, investor.bg said.

Bersani confirmed Italin Enel’s desire to invest in the Belene nuclear power plant (NPP). Enel is one of the five candidates strategic investors in the NPP.

Italian investment in Bulgaria between 1996 and 2006 totalled 91 136 billion euro. For the first half of 2007 only, Italian companies had invested 45 million euro in Bulgaria.

Goods exchange between Bulgaria and Italy was worth 2.815 billion euro in 2006. Bulgaria’s export to Italy was worth 1.2 billion euro.