Balkans Support Gas Pipeline to Reduce Russian Reliance

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--A giant gas pipeline project, which is designed to reduce the reliance of Balkan countries on Russian gas, has received political support from Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.

The four countries have signed a joint declaration in support of a modified version of the Eastring pipeline project, which will transverse all four countries, allowing gas to flow in both directions. The project would replace the Russian-led South Stream project. Tension between Russia and Europe over its military backing of rebels in Ukraine led to the cancellation by Russia of the $40 billion South Stream Transport gas pipeline in December. For additional information, see December 3, 2014, article - Russia Scraps South Stream Natural Gas Pipeline, Chooses New Route to Turkey.

The pipeline--which may be renamed--initially will have a capacity of 20 billion cubic meters a year (bcm/y), but will expand to 40 bcm/y later on. The goal of the project would be to allow gas to flow to the Balkans via gas sources in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Cyprus and Russia, while for the reverse flow, gas would be supplied by hubs in Western Europe. There are two main versions of the proposed project, ranging from 832 kilometers (km) long to a 1,274-km version stretching to Bulgaria.

The original Eastring project was proposed last year by Slovakian operator Eustream and would use much of its existing infrastructure.

A leaked copy of the signed document stated: "The Parties to this document hereby declare their support for the implementation of interconnection and substantial bidirectional capacity of existing infrastructure for natural gas supply on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and the Slovak Republic and for joint efforts to seek new sources and routes of diversification."

"Eastring is a proposed pipeline, a version of which is 832-km long, and runs across Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, while another version is 1,274-km long, and reaches Bulgaria," Mirek Topolánek, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, told European news network EurActiv recently. "One of its advantages is that Eastring uses the existing infrastructure of Eustream on Slovak territory, which was completely renovated after the 2009 gas crisis."

In February this year, Russia's state-owned natural gas exporting firm, OAO Gazprom (PINK:OGAZPY) (Moscow, Russia), pushed ahead with its alternative to the South Stream pipeline with Turkey. The Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline will have a shipping capacity of 63 bcm/y, of which 50 bcm will be supplied to a new gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border. For additional information, see February 2, 2015, article - Turkey, Russia's Gas Giant OAO Gazprom Agree on New Gas Pipeline.

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