Gazprom to extend TurkStream pipeline to Bulgaria, Serbia - report

Gas deliveries to Bulgaria and Serbia through the TurkStream will begin in 2020, to Hungary in 2021, and to Slovakia in the second half of 2022, which will make it possible to suspend the transit of the fuel through Ukrainian territory as of 2022, Russian daily Kommersant reported, quoting data from documents of local gas transmission system operators.

The cost of expanding Bulgaria's gas transmission system will stand at $1.63 billion (1.43 million euro).

"Documents of gas transmission operators of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia, dated October and November as part of the procedure for booking of future capacities, show that Gazprom has chosen a route for deliveries to Europe via the second string of TurkStream through these countries," the Russian daily reported.

As part of the project, a new station will be built near the Provadiya compressor station in northeastern Bulgaria, and a 474 km-long gas pipeline will be built to carry gas to a new compressor station - Rasovo, near the border with Serbia. The gas pipeline will cross the border near the Serbian city of Zajecar. The route almost completely follows the route of the Bulgarian section of the abandoned South Stream project, Kommersant commented. 

Bulgaria's gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz intends to carry out an auction in December for future gas pipeline capacities at the entrance to the Bulgarian system from Turkey and at the exit to Serbia. The import capacity, which is proposed for booking from January 1, 2020, is 15.8 billion cubic metres per year, while the export capacity is set at 4.0 billion cubic metres. From January 1, 2021, exports should increase to 11 billion cubic metres, Kommersant noted.

In December 2014, Russia abandoned - over objections from the European Commission - its plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline designed to carry Russian gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and from there to central and southern Europe but said it is ready to build another pipeline system to Turkey instead (TurkStream).

The TurkStream offshore gas pipeline, to stretch for 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey, will consist of two parallel strings with annual capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres of gas. One of them is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second will carry gas to customers in South and Southeast Europe.

($ = 0.876743 euro)