Serbian section of TurkStream 90% laid says Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that 90% of the pipes of state-owned Gazprom's southern venture, the TurkStream pipeline, have been laid, preparing the way for the transit of natural gas into Europe.

"The Serbian section of the gas pipe from the Bulgarian border to the Hungarian border is almost ready: 90% of the pipes have been laid and 85% of them are ready; they are already in the trenches," Putin said during a joint news conference with visiting Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic in Moscow on Wednesday, according to a press release by the Russian President's Office.

Gazprom's plan is to build a string of the TurkStream pipeline for transit of natural gas from Russia to Europe via Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. Serbia intends to have its 403 km section of the pipeline completed by December 18.

In Bulgaria, a consortium of Saudi-based Arkad Engineering and Construction Company and its Italy-based company Arkad ABB started the construction of the country's 474 km section of the transit gas pipeline in October, after Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court closed the case against the decision by the country's anti-trust regulator to reinstate Arkad as winner in the tender for the project.

"Bulgaria is deliberately delaying the implementation of the project on its territory. This is strange and disappointing. I would like to say that straight out, publicly," Putin said during the news conference.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov responded to Putin's remark on Wednesday, saying that the country is not delaying the project and fulfils all the European Union's requirements, which non-member states like Russia, Turkey and Serbia do not have to.

"Bulgaria is the gas hub. I do not believe that Serbia will build their part of the pipeline much faster," Borisov said.

The offshore section of the TurkStream pipeline stretching 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey consists of two parallel strings with annual throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres of gas each. One string is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second will carry gas to customers in Europe through Bulgaria and Serbia.

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