In order to provide another direction of supplying its market with gas, Serbia has joined the project of construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline, which will deliver gas from Russia, via Turkey and Bulgaria, to our country and then to Hungary and Austria.
Transit of gas from Russia to Turkey with the Turkish Stream gas pipeline began last week, for now only for the markets of Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and Northern Macedonia, and Energy and Mining Minister Aleksandar Antic recently said that the first gas volumes from that pipeline will be through the main gas pipeline in Serbia to start in the second half of the year, probably in October, before the next heating season.
As a reminder, after the abandonment of the South Stream gas pipeline, due to the opposition of the European Union, the realization of the Turkish Stream project began. The project met the requirements of the EU’s Third Energy Package, and remarks by the European Energy Community that the Turkish Stream pipeline excludes competition in supplying Southeast Europe are incorrect, according to Balkanmagazin editor-in-chief Jelica Putnikovic.
– The EEC insists on enabling competition and diversifying the sources of gas supply in Serbia – says Jelica Putnikovic.
– When it comes to the gas pipeline, which will supply gas from Turkey Stream via Bulgaria to Serbia and further to Hungary, it is a new supply route, that is, a kind of diversification, and Serbia has resolved the competition issue by being the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia made the decision to exclude that project from the so-called Third Energy Package, but some of the capacity was still left for the so-called third party. It is interesting that in the remarks about the construction of the gas pipeline through Serbia, which is being built by Gastrans, the EEC criticizes AERS and details on which the body does not make decisions – it is an insistence that PE “Srbijagas”, one of the shareholders in “Gastrans”, is carried out by the ownership separation of the activities of production and supply of natural gas, which is the responsibility of certain ministries of the Government of Serbia.
Late last year, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to continue gas transit to Europe. According to Jelica Putnikovic, this avoids the possibility that Serbia depends on deliveries of “Gasprom” gas from “North Stream 1” or gas storage facilities in Europe, and it is good that supplies are provided at the Underground Gas Storage in Banatski Dvor and what our country agreed to is to supply additional gas from European countries.
– It is good that an extension of transit through Ukraine has been signed because next winter, when gas flows through the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, Serbia will have two routes of supply with this agent, which will contribute to greater security of supply and enable greater consumption – says Jelica Putnikovic.
She points out that she expects that gas pipeline from Russia to Serbia will arrive in the fall, and that the Turkish Stream is very important for Serbia’s energy stability.
– In September last year, after a slightly slower pace, construction of a gas pipeline in Bulgaria to Serbia began, and it is realistic that the work should be completed by summer or October, which will allow us to supply gas for the next heating season. It is necessary for the country, as well as in Serbia, to build a compressor station and supporting infrastructure in the next phase, which are necessary for the further transit of gas from Serbia to Hungary – says Jelica Putnikovic.
Source: dnevnik.rs
