Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic said on
Thursday he expects works on the construction of a gas interconnection with
Bulgaria could start next year.
The interconnector with Bulgaria will
enable Serbia to link up to the planned Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans
Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Antic said in a statement posted on the
Serbian government's website.
In April, Antic said he expects financing
for the gas interconnection with Bulgaria to be agreed with the European
Commission by the end of 2015.
The planned bidirectional gas
interconnector with Bulgaria would diversify Serbia's supply options. The Balkan
state currently has just one gas supply route, coming via Ukraine and
Hungary.
News agency Beta quoted Antic as saying on Thursday that the
state budget for 2015 has allocated funds to draw up a spatial plan for the gas
link with Bulgaria which will have an annual capacity of 2 billion cu
m.
TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in
Azerbaijan to Europe. The approximately 870 km long pipeline will connect with
the TANAP near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and
the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.
The TANAP
pipeline is due for completion in 2018. It is expected to have an initial
capacity of 16 billion cu m per year in 2020.
Serbia is also interested
in Turkish Stream and all other projects, which can ensure diversification of
the country's gas supply routes, Antic added.
The minister also said that
he expects another gas tariff cut in the third or fourth quarter of the
year.
Earlier in the day, the Serbian energy regulator approved a cut of
around 5% in gas tariffs as of June 1 to account for lower prices on
international oil markets and fluctuations in the US dollar exchange
rate.
In December, Gazprom and Turkey’s Botas signed a memorandum of
understanding for the construction of the so called Turkish Stream gas pipeline
that will have a capacity of 63 billion cu m. The move followed the announcement
that Russia was abandoning plans to build the South Stream, a gas pipeline
project that would have opened up a supply route to Southeast Europe that
bypasses Ukraine and is less at risk of disruption.