Serbia completed the construction of its section of a natural gas link with Bulgaria, the country’s energy ministry said on Sunday.
Once operational, the link will be able to transport 1.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year from Bulgaria to Serbia, with an option for reverse flow.
“I expect the gas pipeline to be put into trial operation by the end of the week,” energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said, as quoted in a press release.
Earlier this year, Bulgaria said it plans to complete the construction of the 62-km stretch on its territory by the end of October.
Initially, the 170-km pipeline between Novi Iskar in Bulgaria and Nis in Serbia was expected to be operational by the middle of 2023.
Serbia, which currently receives its natural gas supplies from Russia, last month agreed with Azerbaijan a deal to import 400 million cubic metres of natural gas in order to diversify its energy sources.
In November, Bulgartransgaz and its peer Transportgas Serbia signed an agreement formalising the interconnection between the two national gas transmission systems at the soon-to-open Kalotina-Dimitrovgrad point.
