Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said after attending the official launch ceremony for the TurkStream natural gas pipeline that the pipeline is of great importance for Serbia’s future, for attracting investments and for further economic and industrial development of the country.
President Vucic stressed that the launch of the first TurkStream line is crucial for energy security and efficiency of supply of this energy resource to Serbia’s population, as well as its industry. He reminded that Serbia has already completed its section of TurkStream extension and now it is up to Bulgaria to complete its section in order for Serbia to receive first volumes of Russian natural gas via this pipeline. He estimated this could happen in September at the latest.
He said that if Serbia manages to book the entire transit capacity of the pipeline through its territory, namely the whole 13 billion cubic meters, the investment in gas infrastructure will pay off in 10 to 12 years.
The construction of Serbian section of TurkStream gas pipeline extension, connecting Bulgarian and Hungarian borders, has officially started in May 2019. With an envisaged capacity of almost 14 billion cubic meters of gas per year, 403 kilometers long Serbian section should be put into operation as early as 2020, and reach its full capacity during 2022. The operator of the pipeline in Serbia is local company Gastrans, a joint venture between Russian Gazprom and stateowned gas company Srbijagas. TurkStream pipeline project emerged as an alternative for South Stream pipeline project which was cancelled in December 2014 due to non -compliance with EU legislation. The construction of TurkStream pipeline was agreed between Gazprom and Turkish state-owned gas company BOTAS in December 2014. New pipeline will be constructed under Black Sea towards western Turkey. Capacity of the pipeline will be some 63 billion cubic meters annually, where some 14 billion cubic meters (one line) would be supplied to Turkey and remaining amount to GreeceTurkey gas hub. From this hub, natural gas will be supplied to both Bulgaria and Greece. However, in October 2015 Gazprom halved the proposed capacity of TurkStream gas pipeline to 32 billion cubic meters of gas per year, while Turkey insisted on the construction of just one line, with the option for the second line in the future. The final agreement envisages the construction of two lines (one for gas supply directly to Turkey and the other for gas supply to Europe) with the capacity od 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year each. The first line was officially put into operation on 8 January 2020.
