Serbia submits documents for TurkStream – Gas pipeline to be built by December 2019?

The Secretariat of the Energy Community in Vienna has confirmed for Radio Slobodna Evropa that the Energy Agency of Serbia has submitted the documentation related to the project of the construction of the Serbian section of the TurkStream gas pipeline and that the documentation is currently being evaluated.

– We are currently examining all the documents and the information submitted to us. We have also requested additional information, as this is a complex project and there are numerous related questions – Andrius Simkus, gas expert at the Secretariat of the Energy Community, an international organization which gathers EU countries and its neighbors to the end of creating and integrated pan-European energy market, told RSE.

Simkus said that the Secretariat of the Energy Community would give its opinion several months later. It will provide an answer to the question of whether the construction of the gas pipeline through Serbia, which would connect the country to TurkStream, complies with the rules of the Energy Community and the European Union (EU).

– In order to avoid repeating the South Stream situation, where Russia gave up on the project in 2014, being unable to comply with EU regulations under which a company cannot own both the gas and the gas pipeline, this time, everything will be done in line with the Law on Energy of Serbia, which integrates EU legal acquis – the director of Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, told RSE.

Bajatovic is also the director of the Russian-Serbian gas company Gastrans, which should build the pipeline.

– According to our plans, the 403-km Serbian section should be completed by December 15, 2019 – Bajatovic says and emphasizes that the Energy Agency of Serbia (AERS) has already given a preliminary opinion on the project and that they are now waiting for an opinion of the Energy Community.

He says that, whatever the Energy Community’s opinion turns out to be, it will be “non-binding” for Serbia.

Energy Community Secretariat Viena

Agencija za energetiku Republike Srbije

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

GASTRANS d.o.o. Novi Sad

Energy Community

Energy Agency of Serbia

Srbijagas

Gastrans

TurkStream gas pipeline

South Stream gas pipeline

Andrius Simkus

Dusan Bajatovic

construction of TurkStream

construction of gas pipeline through Serbia

Law on Energy of Serbia