Construction Of TurkStream Pipeline Extension In Serbia May Start In March - Srbijagas

The construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline extension in Serbia, which will help transport Russian gas from Bulgaria to Hungary, may be launched by the end of March, General Director of Serbian state-owned gas company Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic said on Monday

BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2019) The construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline extension in Serbia, which will help transport Russian gas from Bulgaria to Hungary, may be launched by the end of March, General Director of Serbian state-owned gas company Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic said on Monday.

Last week, Alexey Miller, the CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, which controls the construction of TurkStream on Russia's part, confirmed plans to finish the pipeline's construction in Serbia before the end of 2019.

"If everything goes well, we will start the [construction] works from March 15 to March 31. Everything is ready [for the implementation of] what was mentioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and what Putin and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic agreed on," Bajatovic said as broadcast by state television.

According to Bajatovic, Belgrade is still waiting for the final approval of the project by the Central and South Eastern Europe Energy Connectivity (CESEC), which was created to facilitate the implementation of cross-border gas projects in Europe. The general director believes that CESEC's decision will be announced "in early February."

"Shareholders have provided 150 million Euros [over $170 million for the project], which means that the company will soon have around 300 million euros in its bank account to make an advance payment," Srbijagas CEO noted, adding that Turkey had started extending the pipeline to its border with Bulgaria, which, in turn, had already laid the first 40 kilometers (24.

8 miles) of the TurkStream's second leg on its territory.

The construction of the Serbian section of the pipeline will be carried out by joint Serbian-Russian enterprise Gastrans, set up by Srbijagas and Gazprom.

After his meeting with Vucic earlier in January, Putin said that Russia was ready to invest $1.4 billion in the construction of the TurkStream extension to European countries via Serbia. Vucic, in turn, stressed that the construction would be financed jointly by Russia and Serbia.

The TurkStream pipeline will have two legs, each with the capacity to deliver 15.7 billion cubic meters (554 billion cubic feet) of gas per year. The first leg is set to bring gas across the Black Sea directly to Turkey, while the other one will run across Turkey to its western border, transporting natural gas to countries in the south and southeast of Europe. Gazprom has been considering options for extending the second leg of the pipeline through Bulgaria and Serbia or through Greece and Italy.