BELGRADE (Serbia), December 27 (SeeNews) – Serbia has completed the laying of pipes for its section of Gazprom's TurkStream pipeline for transit of natural gas to Europe, the head of state-owned monopoly Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, said.
"The pipes are welded. We expect to finish work on the measuring stations soon," Bajatovic said in a video file posted on the YouTube channel of Serbian public broadcaster RTS earlier this week.
Serbia has three access points to the gas pipeline - near Paracin, in Belgrade and in Zrenjanin - and the country also plans to build a connector to the Banatski Dvor gas storage facility, Bajatovic said.
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. The length of the Serbian section is 403 km.
"The complete pipeline in Bulgaria and what the Hungarians still have to do should be ready by the end of 2020. If the Bulgarians step up work, then it will be completed within the deadlines," Bajatovic noted.
In Bulgaria, a consortium of Saudi-based Arkad Engineering and Construction Company and its Italy-based joint venture company Arkad ABB started the construction of the country's section of the transit gas pipeline in October, after Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court closed the case against a decision by the anti-trust regulator to reinstate Arkad as winner in a tender for the works.
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