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Russia wants to bypass Ukraine, Slovakia with gas supplies: expert

Xinhua, May 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Gas pipeline projects such as South Stream, Turkish Stream, and Nord Stream 2 confirmed Russia wanted to bypass Ukraine and Slovakia as transit countries, said an expert on Thursday.

The current gas transit agreement between Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz is to expire in 2019.

"Russia is serious about its intention to avoid Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 is a 100-percent commercial project, but its political dimension can't be overlooked," said the executive director of the Slovak Gas and Oil Association, Jan Klepac, on TABLET.TV here on Thursday.

If Ukraine were bypassed, it would create a political, but chiefly an economic problem for Slovakia.

"Slovakia has a very strong gas network. Its annual transit capacity is 94 billion cubic meters. This was utilized to a level of 60 percent last year. If major pipelines avoided Slovakia, it would lose income from gas transit fees, and that would be a problem. Moreover, we would find ourselves on the periphery of the gas industry in the EU," stressed Klepac.

According to Klepac, it's in Slovakia's interests to seek alternatives such as the Eastring project, which would connect the Slovak gas pipeline network to the Balkans.

"This would enable supplies of other than Russian gas to Europe through the southern corridor. Gas from Azerbaijan would be available immediately, to be followed later by gas from Turkmenistan or Iran. This is a project of vital importance for the EU, as well as for Slovakia," added Klepac.

The Eastring pipeline should be put into commercial operation by the end of 2018. Its technical capacity in the initial stage of the project is 20 billion cubic meters, to be expanded to 40 billion in the final stage. Depending on the final decision on its route, the pipeline's length should range between 832 and 1,015 km. The investment costs of the project's first stage are estimated at between 1.14 and 1.52 billion euros (1.28 to 1.7 billion U.S. dollars).

South Stream is a proposed pipeline project to transport gas from Russia through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and onwards to Austria on hold since 2014. The existing Nord Stream 2 transports gas from Russia to Germany by way of the Baltic Sea. The so-called Turkish Stream, suspended in December 2015, would transport gas from Russia to western Turkey. Endit