Page 12 - EurOil Week 45

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Bulgaria reportedly completes

Balkan Stream

BULGARIA BULGARIA has reportedly completed its sec- pressure, claiming it is a local project that has
tion of the Turkish Stream pipeline, dubbed Bal- nothing to do with Turkish Stream. However,
Balkan Stream kan Stream, and has connected it to the Serbian several months earlier the same project was for-
represents the part of the pipeline, b92 reported on November mally recognised as part of the Turkish Stream
European part of 9, quoting unnamed sources. pipeline. Gazprom has decided that its second
TurkStream. Bulgaria’s government has named its section line will span Bulgaria and Serbia starting from
of the Turkish Stream pipeline Balkan Stream in 2020, then go through Hungary and Slovakia
an attempt to show it does not only plan to use starting from 2021 and the second half of 2022,
the pipeline for Russian gas. However, the US has respectively.
warned it considering this to be the same pipe- Turkish Stream spans a 930-km route across
line and threatened to sanction all companies the Black Sea. It helps to meet Turkey’s ambition
participating in its construction. of becoming a gas hub serving European mar-
According to the sources quoted by b92, kets. However, analysts have noted that Turkey
Bulgaria has completed the project but did no will not be able to use its role as a transit state for
organise an official launch ceremony due to the Russian gas to Europe as leverage over Moscow
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. because if it attempted to play politics in that way
In February, Bulgaria said that it will not stop the Kremlin could simply switch gas volumes
the construction of Balkan Stream upon US back to Ukraine. ™

Uniper reviews Germany LNG terminal

plans, considers hydrogen imports

GERMANY GERMANY’S Uniper is reviewing plans for an Apxo and another unidentified company.
LNG regasification terminal at Wilhelmshaven Australian investment bank Macquarie and
Germany has and may decide to convert the project for hydro- ChinaHarbour Engineering, meanwhile, want to
published its national gen imports instead, it said on November 6. build a 5-8 bcm per year plant in Stade, but this
hydrogen strategy, The moves come after Uniper invited binding project is at a less advanced stage.
heavily prioritising the bids for capacity at the 10bn cubic metre per year Uniper invited bids in September for its pro-
development of green floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), ject. Last year ExxonMobil signed a provisional
hydrogen. but got only a tepid response from the market. contract for a large portion of its capacity, but it
“Numerous market players took part in the is unclear whether this deal was ever finalised.
procedure and expressed general interest, but Germany has published its national hydrogen
not enough of them have made their booking strategy, heavily prioritising the development of
intentions binding,” Uniper explained. so-called green hydrogen, produced from water
The German energy group is looking to use at electrolysers powered by renewable energy.
the project instead to import “environmentally It is targeting growth in hydrogen production
friendly gas”, including hydrogen in the long to 14 TWh per year by 2030 and 28 TWh per
term. year by 2035-2040, but envisages that most of its
Wilhelmshaven is among three proposed demand for the fuel will be met by imports.™
LNG terminals in Germany, which is Europe’s
biggest gas market but lacks in any regasification
capacity. A joint venture between the Nether-
lands’ Gasunie, German tank storage provider
Oiltanking and Dutch chemical storage firm
Vopak, is developing a rival 8 bcm per year pro-
ject in Brunsbuettel. The group aim to strike a
binding deal with German power firm RWE for
the bulk of its capacity by the end of the year.
Other reservations were made by Swiss utility

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 12•November•2020