MOSCOW – Gazprom is looking at the possibility to extend the TurkStream pipeline as far as the Baumgarten hub in Austria via Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, the Russian gas giant said.
Gazprom said it had asked its NIIgazekonomika institute to perform a pre-investment study of scenarios to continue TurkStream via European countries. The purpose of the study is “to choose the optimal configuration for projects to create new and expand existing gas transportation capacity in the territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Austria necessary for the supply and transit of Russian gas to these countries.”
The work involves analyzing existing gas transmission systems in Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Austria and the opportunities to make use of previously planned routes in those countries for the new projects. Route scenarios will be put together according to life of project and gross discounted cost criteria.
The budget for the study is 1.77 million rubles, the minimum for Gazprom consulting services. The end product will be “presentation materials” and a brief report on the results of the pre-investment study in Russian and English.
TurkStream consists of two offshore pipelines, both with capacity to transport up to 15.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year (31.5 bcm in total). The offshore section runs approximately 930 kilometers through the Black Sea, from the Russian city of Anapa to the Turkish town of Kiyiköy. Gas transported via the first pipeline is destined for the Turkish market. The other pipeline will be directed towards the Turkish-European border.
