South Stream

Bulgaria may halt the transit of Russian gas to Serbia via the TurkStream pipeline starting in the new year if Gazprom fails to ensure payment compliance with U.S. sanctions against Gazprombank.

After the sabotage of Nord Stream, Hungary and Serbia warned the international community that any endangerment of the gas supply system from the Russian Federation would be considered a casus belli, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated in a conversation with American journalist Tucker Carlson.

The Hungarian-Serbian joint venture for gas trading on the European market will start operating in September. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó announced this in a video message on his Facebook page after a meeting between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who was visiting Budapest, TASS reported.

"At the end of the month in Sofia (April 25-26), a large-scale agreement is expected to be signed between several countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, on the expansion of the gas infrastructure.

Gas supplies from Russia to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline will not be fully resumed until the "collective West" lifts the sanctions imposed on Moscow after the start of the invasion of Ukraine. This was announced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the "Financial Times".

For the time being, Bulgaria has no intention of stopping transit gas to Serbia and Hungary. This became clear at a briefing by Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov, who gave more details about Gazprom's decision to suspend natural gas supplies to Bulgaria.

Britain has sanctioned five Russian banks and three oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin.

This became clear from the statement of Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the House of Commons.

Boris Johnson Promised to Strike Russia Significantly

Natural gas flow through both offshore lines of the TurkStream pipeline will be temporarily halted from 22 June until 29 June 2021, for annual maintenance and routine diagnostics, the project company, TurkStream, announced on June 16.

The works will be carried out by South Stream Transport B.V., the operator of the offshore pipeline system.

Over 5.8 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas transferred to Europe from Turkey via TurkStream natural gas pipeline in 2020, according to industry sources on Jan. 3.

The TurkStream pipeline opened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Jan. 8.

Serbia on Jan. 1 said it had begun delivering natural gas to Europe through the TurkStream pipeline and a new route crossing Turkey and Bulgaria.

The 403-kilometer (250 miles) Serbian section was commissioned in a ceremony in Gospodjinci in the municipality of northern Zabalj.