Balkan Stream is strategically important for the region

The Balkan Stream pipeline, which runs through Bulgaria and carries natural gas from Turkish Stream to Serbia and other neighboring countries, was launched earlier this year, almost simultaneously with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which carries Azeri gas from Greece to Italy. Whether a dilemma or an ironic coincidence, the Southern Gas Corridor, designed to reduce Russia's gas dependence on Southeast Europe by diversifying supplies of Azeri gas, began its gas flows simultaneously with the Balkan Stream, which currently carries blue fuel from Russia for the Balkans.

"Balkan Stream, which was put into operation in early 2021, is an integrated and strategically vital gas pipeline not only for Bulgaria but also for several European countries, because it will provide sustainable natural gas supplies from several sources: from" Turkish Stream ”, from the TANAP, TAP gas pipelines and the liquefied natural gas re-gasification terminals in Turkey and Greece,” said Dimitar K. Shterev, former head of the Natural Gas Storage Department at Bulgartransgaz EAD, in an exclusive statement for the magazine. Enerji IQ Market Report, Turkey.

In terms of scale and capacity, “Balkan Stream is an important European gas project. The implementation of such projects does not happen often in the gas industry, says D. Shterev, while at the same time from his point of view emphasizes the contribution of this project to the development of the gas sectors of the countries of Southeast Europe.

The sooner the accumulated mistrust between the states and the artificial ideologies of temporary economic circumstances of a political and other nature are overcome, the sooner it will be seen that the Balkan Stream gas pipeline is strategically important and necessary not only for Turkey and Bulgaria, but also for the European Union ", added Dimitar Shterev.