Russia’s TurkStream gas pipeline, launched recently and running through Serbian territory will add $200 million to the country’s budget, Andrey Khripunov, Russia’s trade representative in Serbia, has said, according to RT.
“I hope that the blue fuel will fill the pipeline soon. The country [Serbia] becomes a transit state, and according to the declared volume of natural gas pumping, annual budget revenues will amount to about 180 million euros,” Khripunov told Russian media on Tuesday.
Gas delivered via the TurkStream will help both Serbian households and manufacturing plants, as they can get cheaper energy if they switch from coal and heating oil to gas. The trade representative noted that the project will also boost production in the country and make it more eco-friendly.
Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic said last week that the country’s onshore extension of TurkStream had been fully laid, with work to continue over 2020 to build the link’s supporting infrastructure.
Speaking following a meeting of the council of the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku, Antic said the new route from Azerbaijan and the TurkStream system both brought new gas supply diversification for Serbia.
The Balkan state has been busy laying its 403 km (250-mile) section of the TurkStream onshore expansion to bring gas carried by the TurkStream pipeline from Serbia’s border with Bulgaria to its border with Hungary.
“This project is of strategic importance for Serbia and in 2020 we will build supporting infrastructure, including compressor stations,” Antic said.
The TurkStream gas pipeline began commercial flows on January 1 this year and has largely replaced the volumes that used to come to Southeast Europe in the Trans-Balkan line via Ukraine.
