The delivery of natural gas from Turkish stream begins on 1 January - Bulgaria is ready, Turkey will be ready by 20 December, a branch from the Russian pipeline will not pass through Macedonia. We may supply ourselves, but the quantities are insufficient. The director of National Energy Resources, Redzepi says that we have only one interconnector with Bulgaria, but with a capacity of only 800 million cubic meters. The priority, according to him, is the interconnector with the Greek company Desfa, with a capacity of 2.8 billion cubic meters - quantities that will be sufficient to affect the drop in gas prices.
The environmental study is still under preparation, due to be completed in late March or April, following the construction approval the call for construction will be announced in late summer or early September. The complete construction and connection with Greece would be in place by 2022, says the director of NER Redzepi.
The estimated value of this project is EUR 50 million, 10 of which are grants and the rest are loans from the European Investment Bank. The Macedonian section will be 78 km long and will go along the route of the existing oil pipeline, from Negotino via Gevgelija to Greece. Although Macedonia was originally in play for the Turkish Stream as a substitute for South Stream, it was out of the picture two years ago.
The Turkish stream route starts from Anapa on the Russian coast, crosses the Black Sea and reaches the Turkish coast from where it continues to Bulgaria, the Greek border, Serbia, Hungary and Austria. It has a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, out of which 14 billion are for Turkey and the rest for Southeast Europe.