June 29 (SeeNews) - Hungary's national gas transmission network operator FGSZ has approved an investment plan for the construction of a cross-border gas interconnection with Serbia, it said.
Under the investment plan, the gas link will have an annual capacity to carry 6 billion cubic metres of gas per year which will be reached on October 1, 2021, FGSZ said in a statement on Saturday.
Last week, Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said Busdapest plans to buy up to 6 billion cubic metres of gas annually from an extension of the TurkStream pipeline through Bulgaria and Serbia as of October 2021.
"Our goal is to sign three five-year deals, which allows cancelling the agreement at the end of each five-year period. This will ensure our long-term supply and that if better opportunities arise or the international energy market changes, the agreement can be renegotiated or withdrawn," Szijjarto said.
In December, Serbia completed the laying on its territory of about 400 km of pipes of a string of the TurkStream pipeline of Russia's Gazprom for the transit of natural gas to Europe from Turkey via Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. The Bulgarian section of the pipeline extension is still unfinished.
The offshore section of the TurkStream pipeline stretching 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey consists of two parallel strings with an annual throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres each. One string is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second will carry gas to customers in Europe through Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.