Serbia’s Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović visited the construction of the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnection on Friday (27 October), announcing that the pipeline is set to be completed in the first weeks of November.
“Works on the gas interconnection have entered the final phase, thus far about 98 per cent of the works have been carried out. We expect the construction to be completed in the next two weeks, at the same time we are moving towards obtaining all the permits in order to ensure that the gas pipeline becomes operational as soon as possible. The Ministry is monitoring the implementation of this project on a daily basis for months, and it will be like that until the very end,” said Minister Đedović Handanović.
The minister visited the gas measurement and regulation station in the town of Trupale near Niš in southern Serbia, together with a meeting with the project’s contractors and other stakeholders.
“With this interconnection, in addition to Russian gas, which is an important and stable source of supply through the Balkan Stream, we will also have the opportunity to connect with gas from Azerbaijan and the LNG terminal in Greece. We are negotiating with a company from Azerbaijan, and by the end of November I expect to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the ministries of energy of Serbia and Azerbaijan, as well as a commercial contract between the Azerbaijani supplier and JP “Srbijagas,” said Minister Đedović Handanović.
The supply of natural gas through the interconnector is expected to begin by the end of the year, the minister said.
