"At the first stage, the gas pipeline will transport about 4 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which will fully cover Serbia's natural gas needs. By the fourth quarter of 2021, after the gas pipeline is connected to the Hungarian gas transmission system, the gas pipeline's capacity will be 12.87 billion cubic meters of gas per year," a spokesperson of Gastrans, a joint venture of Russia’s Gazprom and Serbia’s state-owned natural gas company Srbijagas, said.
According to the operator, the project created over 2,500 new jobs in Serbia during the construction phase.
"The inter-connecting gas pipeline becomes a new route for natural gas deliveries to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe," the spokesperson said, adding that the pipeline would ensure sustainable economic development of the region by diversifying natural gas supply routes.
On Friday morning, Serbian President Alexander Vucic attended a ceremony dedicated to the launch of Russian gas into the Serbian gas transmission system via Bulgaria from the TurkStream pipeline.
The construction of the 250-mile-long extension linking Serbia to the TurkStream pipeline was completed in December 2019.
