The Greek government is concerned that Moscow might be considering alternative routes for Turkish Stream, which could potentially exclude Greece from the Gazprom-backed gas pipeline project, ekathimerini.com reported on Thursday. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico presented Tuesday in Moscow a gas pipeline project that also will involve Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. The future pipe, to be connected to the Turkish Stream pipeline, is to enter from Turkey into Bulgaria and then stretch to Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. Gazprom unveiled Turkish Stream in December 2014 as a replacement to the South Stream project, which it had abandoned over EU objections. The Russian energy giant said back then that Turkish Stream will be able to carry 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year to Turkey underneath the Black Sea. Out of the total, Turkey will use 16 billion cubic meters to meet its domestic needs, while the remaining 47 billion cubic meters will be pumped to a future gas hub, to be built on Turkey’s border with Greece, for delivery to southern and central Europe. The announcement made by Slovakia’s PM Fico has raised questions where exactly the Turkish Stream pipeline will go to after entering Turkey. Earlier this week Natural Gas Europe pointed to the clashing gas hub ambitions of Bulgaria and Greece. Both EU member states are bordering Turkey. Diplomatic sources on Wednesday said that Moscow would decide on the exact route only after it has the go-ahead from the European Commission, according to the online English-language version of Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini. The same sources described comments by Greek officials abbount an imminent deal with Moscow as overoptimistic.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.novinite.com |
