Serbia,
Hungary, Greece, FYROM and Turkey have agreed to pursue joint infrastructure
initiatives that would ensure the energy stability of the region, especially
after the demise of the South Stream gas pipeline project, Serbian foreign
minister Ivica Dacic said.
In December, Russia abandoned the project to
build the South Stream pipeline, which was planned to carry gas from Russia
under the Black Sea, making landfall in Bulgaria and then continuing through
Serbia and Hungary towards Austria. The initiative was replaced by a
Gazprom-spearheaded project for a pipeline system to Turkey - Turkish
Stream.
The first steps expected to be taken are to define the gas
project of common interest and then to draft a joint feasibility study, Dacic
said in a government statement issued after he met with counterparts from
Hungary, Greece and FYROM and with Turkey's energy security minister in Budapest
on Tuesday.
The five ministers co-signed a declaration, expressing their
support to create a commercially viable option of route and source
diversification for delivering natural gas from Turkey to the countries of
Central and Southeastern Europe as well as other countries.
The parties
agreed, among other goals, to work on new possibilities for creating regional
economic development via interconnecting the natural gas infrastructures of
their countries with European Union financial assistance; and to complement the
operation of gas storage facilities with the aim of facilitating trading,
providing seasonal balancing and increasing the security of supply in case of
disruption of gas supplies.
The declaration said it affirms political
intent only while further exchange of views and dialogue is needed on the
specific questions among the respective participating states, as well as the
concerned stakeholder companies.
The cancellation of South Stream has put
Serbia in a very tough position. The country produces only about 20% of the gas
it needs and has only one main route of gas supply - through Hungary, coming
from Russia via Ukraine. This supply route, however, was blocked by a spat
between Russia and Ukraine several years ago, Dacic said.
He added that
talks should be conducted to raise financing for such a project with third
parties, be it governments or corporations.
In January, Gazprom said 660
km ofTurkish Stream's route will belaid within the old corridor ofSouth
Streamand 250 km –within anew corridor towards theEuropean part ofTurkey.
The pipeline will comprise four strings with anaggregate capacity of63billion
cu m per year.