Serbia plans to raise capacity of natgas link with Bulgaria

The 170-kilometre interconnector, which was put into operations in December, runs from the western Bulgarian town of Novi Iskar to the Trupale compressor station near the Serbian city of Nis, and interplays with the Southern Gas Corridor. Its construction, worth some 85.5 million euro ($92.5 million), was mostly financed by the EU.

Along with raising the interconnector's capacity, Serbia is also considering building a gas pipeline linking Nis with the capital Belgrade and the Hungarian border. The planned pipeline will connect the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Alexandroupolis, Greece, with the Central European gas hub in Baumgarten, Austria, Bajatovic told a news conference on Thursday. A video with his speech was uploaded on the website of local news agency Tanjug.

Bajatovic said that the future Nis-Belgrade-Hungarian border pipeline could have 750-mm pipes and a capacity of 4.7 bcm per year, or 1,000-mm pipes with an annual capacity of 7 bcm. It will also include the construction of one or two smaller compressor stations.

In addition, Serbia also plans to build a southern gas interconnector from Nis, stretching towards North Macedonia, Bajatovic noted.

According to a report by state broadcaster RTS, Bajatovic also said that Serbia is considering building a natural gas interconnector towards Romania as well, which will start from Belgrade.

The report also said that Srbijagas plans to expand the existing Banatski Dvor gas storage facility and to build three new gas storage facilities.

($ = 0.924 euro)