BELGRADE, October 19. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday described the TurkStream gas pipeline as a project that would benefit the entire Europe.
"This project would in fact be beneficial for entire Europe," the Russian premier said in his speech to the Serbian parliament.
"Right now, we are laying a section of the TurkStream pipeline from the border with Bulgaria to Hungary," the premier replied. "Your country has been fulfilling all obligations to the letter. We hope the construction to be over by the beginning of 2020."
Speaking about economic cooperation between the two states, Medvedev said the overall volume of Russian investment in Serbia topped $4 billion. A further increase by $1.5 billion is planned.
Medvedev raised the TurkStream and energy cooperations issues once again later in the day, speaking to reporters after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
"Today we spoke of energy projects. It is evident that we would keep developing them, all the more so because huge money had already been invested," he said, adding that this applies to projects in oil and gas.
"We all are looking forward to the launch of the TurkStream, we discussed it today," he said. "I’m sure that this project will go into operation. In fact, there is not much work left to do, but, in general, this project will create many jobs and, most importantly, generate huge incomes, including for our Serbian friends."
According to the premier, the documents signed in the course of his visit to Belgrade demonstrate that Serbia’s economic development has entered a new level.
He also mentioned the agreement to cooperate in building the Center of nuclear science, technologies and innovations, which would produce "not abstract nuclear technologies, which are described in textbooks, but concrete things, including medicines."
The Serbian section of the TurkStream is expected to start supplying gas by the end of April 2020. The pipeline is to begin near the city of Zajecar on the border with Bulgaria and cross the border with Hungary near the city of Horgos. Its input capacity is expected to be about 13.88 mln cubic meters of gas per day, output - about 10 mln cubic meters.
Capacity of TurkStream pipeline will be 31.5 bln cubic meters of gas per year. A 930 km long pipeline runs along the bottom of the Black Sea from Russia to the Turkish coast. Next, a land transit line will be laid to the border of Turkey with neighboring countries with a length of 180 km.
The capacity of each line reaches 15.75 bln cubic meters of gas per year. The first gas deliveries are planned for the end of 2019. Gazprom considers Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary as potential markets.