How is Serbia going to get the natural gas it needs when the Russians stop delivering gas via Ukraine in 2019 and when Europe builds all the planned gas pipelines?
At the moment, there isn’t a single gas pipeline that will be built that will run through Serbia. Is the fact that Romania and Bulgaria are EU members the key reason why a leg of the pipeline that will stretch from Turkey and Greece all the way to Hungary will be built in Romania and Bulgaria too, and n0ot in our country?
Energy expert Miordrag Zdravkovic claims that that is not a valid explanation why the future gas pipeline will run through our neighbouring countries. It is actually geopolitics, geography and several other factors which can be best seen in the example of South Stream gas pipeline – Zdravkovic explains.
“The South Stream was not supposed to be a contracted project between Russia and the Balkan states of Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, but rather a project that would be implemented by Russia and the EU. However, as it turns out, the aquatorium of the Black Sea proved to be too big. The pipeline was supposed to be 1,200km long. The Black Sea is almost 2,000 metres deep and building a pipeline that would lie on the seabed would cost way too much. The project would pay off only if the buyers were huge, long-term consumers like the countries in Central, South and Western Europe”, Zdravkovic adds.
He reminds that the Turkish gas pipeline is probably going to be built first, followed by the North Stream 2 that would deliver gas to Europe.
“South Stream is too expensive and thrice the length of the North Stream 2. In order for the South Stream project to be profitable, the gas needs to reach countries that are considered major consumers. Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary are not that but they are important because they can provide a safe transit of gas. It would be good for these three countries for the gas pipeline to run through them because of the gas transport fees that they would collect. But from the standpoint of the country that wants to build this pipeline, i.e. the Russian Federation, we are unimportant. I am afraid that we are going to be left short of gas”, Zdravkovic concludes.
(Vesti Online, 14.06.2017)
http://vesti-online.com/Vesti/Ekonomija/655023/Srbija-ostaje-gasno-slepo-crevo
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He’s wrong because it was the U.S. which was most against South Stream. The U.S. sent senator John McCain and other senator to Bulgaria to threaten it. Bulgaria had been very much onboard South Stream and had signed contracts, but these threats – and the U.S. got the EU to make threats to Bulgaria just days after this, when McCain went to Brussels or a western European country after Bulgaria. Plus countries beyond Hungary, like Austria, would be accessing the gas. It was more than just Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.