"Gazprom" to spend $ 1 billion on the pipes for the "Southern Corridor".

"Gazprom" will select the winners of the tenders worth about $ 1 billion to supply the pipes for the eastern part of the pipeline that will link the backbone network of the monopoly with the "South Stream" pipeline – the pipeline across the Black Sea to Europe, bypassing Russia's opponent in the "gas war" – Ukraine – in a week.

The tender involves all the key Russian pipe producers who built new capacities worth billions of dollars specifically for the projects of "Gazprom".

"Gazprom" needs the pipes procured for the eastern branch of the Southern Corridor - a system of pipes that connects the single gas transportation system of the Russian Federation with the "South Stream" pipeline, three sources in the Russian pipe and gas industry told Reuters. The branch with the length of 1,626 kilometers will be built from the Nizhny Novgorod region to Krasnodarsky Kray.

The representative of "Gazprom" declined to comment on what project the monopoly buys pipes for