Bulgaria successfully completed a third market test to expand the country's gas transit network from Turkey to Serbia for the TurkStream natural gas pipeline, Bulgartransgaz said on Friday.
State-owned gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz announced that after successful testing of Phase 3 of the project that is estimated to cost 2.77 billion Bulgarian levs (US$1.6 billion), it took a final investment decision for the realization of the project for development and expansion of the country's gas transmission system.
Phase 3 involves economic tests of the possible pipeline between Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia. At the end of December 2018, Bulgartransgaz launched a tender for the construction of a new 484 kilometer-long gas pipeline from compressor station Nova Provadia, which will be located around 50 kilometers away from the Black Sea coastal city of Varna, to the border with Serbia.
Accordingly, the company said it would enter into binding capacity contracts with the candidates who submitted binding offers.
"The binding nominations submitted by users total 100 percent of the capacity announced within Phase 3 on the Bulgarian-Turkish border and 100 percent of the capacity announced on the Bulgarian-Serbian border," it said. The deadline for offers was announced as Feb. 15, 2019.
The TurkStream natural gas pipeline has a total capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters out of which the first line will carry a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Turkish consumers. The second line will carry another 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via Turkey.
The second line of the project to transfer Russian gas to Europe is expected to route through Bulgaria following transmission via Turkey. TurkStream gas plans to run from Turkey to Bulgaria, then Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia.
(Anadolu Agency)
