South Stream to come to Balkans from Slovakia and the Ukraine

The operator of Slovakia’s GTS – Eustream from that has carried out the reverse gas supplied to the Ukraine from the autumn 2014, soon plans to sign an agreement with Bulgaria and Romania on the construction of the interconnector gas pipeline which aims at reducing the dependence of the Balkans from the natural gas supplies via the Ukraine, the head of the company, T. Marechek, said on Jan 29th.

Eustream suggests the countries of the peninsula connecting their gas transport networks with the gas transport network of Slovakia. It is said to allow to supply natural gas to the Balkans from the hubs in the Western Europe in case of termination of gas supply via the Ukraine. It is planned to ship as from the terminals in Austria or alternative sources in the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas. Eustream has already counted the value of the project – 750 mln euro or 1.2 bln euro dependent on the chosen route. The throughput capacity of the pipe is to make up 20 bln cubic m of gas a year. Eustream is ready to finance the project but it looks for partners in other countries among which are Austria and France.