Turkish Stream to be strengthened by Serbian Stream

Head of Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic said that Serbia's section of Turkish Stream pipeline will become operational by late April 2020, adding that Belgrade expects a decision on from the Energy Community of South East Europe "in early February."

Serbia's Gastrans company will be in charge of the project, Bajatovic said.

He also said that the new gas pipeline route will roughly be the same as South Stream route, noting that the Serbian section of Turkish Stream pipeline will cross the Bulgarian-Serbian border near the town of Zajecar, and the Serbian-Hungarian border - near the town of Horgos. The head of Srbijagas said that the pipeline capacity will be about 13.88 billion cubic meters per year.

The Banatski Dvor expansion project envisages increasing the working gas capacity by 300 million cubic meters, to 750 million cubic meters. The maximum daily gas deliverability will be doubled to 10 million cubic meters.

In 2017, Russia and Serbia agreed on long-term cooperation to expand the Serbian gas transportation system and prepare a feasibility study for the Banatski Dvor underground gas storage expansion project.

At the talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on January 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to invest $1.4 billion in gas transport infrastructure in Serbia to extend the Turkish Stream to European countries. He noted that many are interested in this.