Russian energy giant Gazprom has begun delivering natural gas to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina through the TurkStream pipeline and a new route crossing Turkey and Bulgaria.
Gazprom said on the first day of 2021 that gas from Russia was transmitted by the TurkStream offshore gas pipeline and further across Turkey.
It is then brought via Bulgaria’s national gas transmission system to Serbia, where it is distributed among consumers in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to Gazprom, deliveries along this route were made possible through the expansion of existing gas transmission capacities and commissioning of new ones by Bulgartransgaz EAD in Bulgaria and Gastrans from Novi Sad in Serbia.
With the addition of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a total of six European countries are now receiving Russian gas supplies via the TurkStream pipeline.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said: “ TurkStream is a state-of-the-art, efficient and reliable gas pipeline that is in high demand by European consumers. The number of European countries receiving Russian gas via TurkStream has grown to six.
“ Along with Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, and Romania, this opportunity is now available in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ”.
Russian energy giant Gazprom officially launched the TurkStream gas pipeline in a grand opening ceremony in early January 2020.
The gas pipeline has two strings with a combined throughput capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters. The first string will deliver gas to Turkey, while the second string is intended for gas transit to southern and southeastern Europe through Turkish territory.
The pipelaying for TurkStream took 15 months and was completed in November 2018. The construction of the receiving terminal near the Kiyikoy settlement in Turkey was finished in 2019.
The starting point for feeding gas into TurkStream is the Russkaya compressor station. It then maintains the pressure required for transmitting gas along the pipeline’s two strings through more than 930 kilometres up under the Black Sea to the Turkish coast where gas enters the receiving terminal.