Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 22

FSUOGM
PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM
Bulgaria still on track to finish TurkStream extension in 2020
Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov and Serbian President Alexander Vucic inspect the construction site.
BULGARIA
Bulgaria has been blamed by Russia for stalling on the project.
BULGARIA aims to wrap up work on its sec- tion of the Balkan Stream, an extension of Rus- sia’s TurkStream gas pipeline, by the end of this year, despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on June 1.
Balkan Stream will pump TurkStream gas through Bulgaria and Serbia and into Hun- gary, enabling Russia to cut transit volumes via Ukraine and potentially boost sales in Europe.
Bulgaria had initially said it would complete its 474-km stretch of the pipeline by the end of 2019. But work was slow to start because of delays finalising the award of a €1.1bn ($1.2bn) construction contract to Saudi-led group Arkad. State gas grid operator Bulgartransgaz did not secure financing to cover advanced payments until late October. The delays irked Moscow, with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing Sofia in December of intentionally obstructing the project.
“Despite the coronavirus, no matter how difficult it was, work has not stopped on ... the Balkan Stream,” Borissov told reporters after inspecting construction with Serbian President Alexander Vucic. “Let’s hope that coronavirus is gone. And despite two to three months’ delay we hope to meet the timeline and have it ready by the end of the year.”
According to a government statement, around 91.4 km of pipes have been positioned in prepared trenches. The remainder are either at temporary construction bases along the pipe- line’s route, or are at the port of Bourgas and
being delivered to these bases on a daily basis. Neighbouring Serbia finished its 403-km sec- tion of the Balkan Stream in late March, although
it is still working on support infrastructure. Meanwhile, Hungary plans to triple the capacity of a pipeline link with Slovakia by 2024 to 5bn cubic metres (bcm) per year, in order to carry gas from Balkan Stream, the country’s for-
eign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said on June 2.
Greek deal
Another key market for Russian gas in southeast Europe is Greece. Gazprom announced on June 1 it had struck a new 10-year gas supply deal with Greek industrial conglomerate Mytilineos.
The Russian gas exporter did not say how much gas the contract covered. But it has been supplying Mytilineos since 2017 and sold the company 588mn cubic metres (mcm) of gas last year.
“The co-operation between Gazprom Export and Mytilineos proves the demand for Rus- sian gas in the Greek market and will further strengthen the interaction between our coun- tries in the energy sector,” Gazprom Export head Elena Burmistrova said in a statement.
Mytilineos is involved in various activities, including gas and electricity trade, power gener- ation and metallurgy.
Gazprom’s overall sales to Greece came to 2.4 bcm per year, down 26.7% versus the level in 2018, partly because of stiff competition from LNG suppliers. ™
Week 22 03•June•2020 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
P13