TurkStream begins pumping gas to Europe

Russia's has begun sending gas to Europe via Turkey through its TurkStream pipeline according to a statement by Bulgaria's Bulgartransgaz.

The TurkStream project is set to double the capacity of the NordStream pipeline across the Baltic Sea as part of Russian plans to lessen reliance on transit routes via Ukraine as it exports gas to Europe.

“Russian gas deliveries not only for us but also for Greece and North Macedonia are being carried through the new entry point (at our Turkish border),” said Bulgartransgaz CEO Vladimir Malinov in an interview with Bulgarian national radio BNR.

Gazprom began shipping around 3 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas via TurkStream on January 1, essentially replacing a route that previously took the gas across the Ukraine and Romania. Last year, the old route - the TransBalkan pipeline - saw about 3 bcm of gas shipped to Greece, and around 500,000 bcm to North Macedonia.

Mr Malinov said that while the TransBalkan pipeline was presently idle, it was reversible and could therefore be used to send gas shipments to Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, if there was sufficient demand.

“We have thus opened the route to access for LNG from the Greece’s LNG terminal Revithoussa up to Ukraine,” he said.

Russia has constructed TurkStream across two separate pipelines, each with an annual capacity of 15.75 bcm. The first pipeline will supply Turkey, and the second would continue on to Bulgaria, and then to Serbia and Hungary. The Bulgarian government has said that is expects the first shipments to Serbia to begin in May and the whole section to be done by the end of this year.

Despite Russia and Ukraine reaching an agreement over gas transit rights to Europe at the end of 2019, overall volumes passing through the country are set to fall to around 40 bcm annually from 2021 to 2024, from a projected 65 bcm in 2020.

Relations between the two former allies have deteriorated since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the seizing over large swathes of eastern Ukraine by pro-Moscow separatists. 

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