Nine companies have submitted their offers at the public call for the lease of capacity of the new gas pipeline in Serbia, which will connect borders of Bulgaria and Hungary. Although the bids are nonbinding, this is a good indication of the interest in the future gas pipeline.
The project is developed by Serbian company Gastrans, former South Stream Serbia, in which Russian Gazprom holds 51 % stake and stateowned Srbijagas the remaining 49 %. The offers were received from both domestic and companies for the neighboring countries. Market and cost analysis of the project should be completed by the end of June, as well as approvals from the neighboring countries. Serbia consumes about 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year and, on the basis of the bids received, additional 15 billion cubic meters would transit the country, which means that the pipeline should have a capacity of 42 million cubic meters per day. This is three times higher than current capacity of Serbia-Hungary interconnection, which is 13 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Vojislav Vijanic from the Serbian Gas Association said that Serbian gas consumption is steadily increasing and the country would need larger gas volumes in the future. The construction of a gas pipeline, which would bridge the borders of Hungary and Bulgaria, with possible connection to TurkStream gas pipeline, would be very useful and necessary for Serbia.
The current gas pipeline project envisages an entry point at the Serbian-Bulgarian border (location in the territory of Zajecar municipality) and four exit points: one near Paracin, one near Pancevo, one near Gospodjinci in Zabalj municipality and one on the Serbian-Hungarian border (location near Horgos in the territory of Kanjiza municipality). he commercial operation of the pipeline is expected to start on 1 October, 2019, but this date is subject to change.
