The European Commission on November 18 included the Tesla and
Eastring gas pipelines in its updated Project of Common Interests (PCIs)
list, which will enable the gradual build-up of the Energy Union by
integrating the energy markets in Europe, diversifying the energy
sources and transport routes.
“What we can say is that Tesla has been given the status of ‘Project
of Common Interest’ (PCI),” a European Commission spokeswoman told New
Europe on November 20, adding that the pipeline systems from Bulgaria to
Slovakia (Eastring) and from Greece to Austria (Tesla) are not mature
at the moment, thus their inclusion will allow supporting further
studies.
Although the European Commission’s aim is to diversify gas supply
sources, lessening the bloc’s reliance on Russian gas, experts say Tesla
is considered to be a pillar of the Gazprom-backed Turkish Stream and
reach Austria from Greece.
Both Eastring and Tesla have been included in the European
Commission’s second PCI list under a cluster of consisting of several
PCIs. This cluster of projects enables the comparison of the potential
expansion of future new gas supplies from the Southeast, including
potentially from Turkmenistan, Iran and the Caspian region, to EU
markets, the Commission said. Currently such project proposals include
Eastring, Tesla, the Bulgarian Gas Hub and the third phase of the
Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria corridor beyond a capacity of 9 billion
cubic metres per year.
Tesla could carry Azerbaijani natural gas via the Trans-Anatolian
Pipeline (TANAP) but also Russian natural gas via Turkish Stream to
Europe.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin was in Antalya, Turkey, from November 15-16 to attend the G20 Leaders Summit, where he met with his Turkish counterpart
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The two leaders discussed the future of Turkish Stream, which was
previously stalled over disagreements on a natural gas discount between
the countries.
Gazprom head
Alexei Miller told reporters in Antalya
that Moscow and Ankara could conduct negotiations over the project to
build Turkish Stream, which will run along the bottom of the Black Sea,
next month. “A strategic partnership summit will take place of the
highest level between Russia and Turkey, therefore the Turkish Stream
will become a subject for negotiations at the interstate and
intergovernmental level this year, in December,” Miller said.
Turkey and Russia agreed to a 10.25% discount on Turkey’s gas
purchases in December 2014; however, almost one year after an agreement
was reached, the discounted prices have yet to be implemented. In
October, Turkey’s state-owned energy company, the Petroleum Pipeline
Company of Turkey (BOTAŞ), requested international arbitration, as BOTAŞ
and Gazprom, have not been able to come to terms on the discount to be
applied to Russian natural gas prices. Putin and Erdoğan reportedly
discussed the projects, however, the arbitration case was not mentioned
during the discussions.
Turkish Stream was initially planned to carry 63 billion cubic metres
of natural gas, however, in October, Gazprom announced that the
capacity would be decreased to 32 billion cubic metres per year. The
reason Turkish Stream was halved is that the Russian gas monopoly signed
agreements with European companies for Nord Stream 2, which plans to
transport up to 55 billion additional cubic metres of Russian gas to
European markets.
http://neurope.eu/article/eu-fast-tracks-tesla-eastring-gas-lines/