February 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria broke ground on Wednesday for a natural gas link with Serbia with a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually, the Serbian government said.
The 170-km pipeline between Novi Iskar in Bulgaria and Nis in Serbia will be operational by the middle of 2023, helping diversify gas supplies in the region, the Serbian government said in a statement.
The construction of the pipeline on Serbian territory started a year ago, in February 2022.
On Bulgarian territory, the pipeline is 65 km long.
Bulgaria, which is no longer reliant on natural gas deliveries from Russia, already has a gas interconnection with Greece, through which it imports natural gas from Azerbaijan and regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Greek and Turkish terminals.
Serbia, which currently receives its natural gas supplies from Russia, began talks with Azerbaijan last year for potentially diversifying its energy sources.
The project includes the construction of two gas pipes and four measuring and regulating stations with the adjacent facilities. Construction is being carried out by Bulgaria's Glavbolgarstroy.
($ = 0.9183 euro)