SOFIA, January 6. /TASS/. North Macedonia and Greece have begun receiving Russian gas through Strnadzha-2 new checkpoint in Bulgaria, Bulgartransgaz EAD Executive Director Vladimir Malinov said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio on Sunday.

"Gas from Russia is successfully supplied through a new entry point (gas compressor station - TASS) of Strnadzha-2 via Turkey. The advantages of this project are security and economic viability. Both North Macedonia and Greece are receiving gas through Strandzha-2," Malinov said.

The Bulgartransgaz CEO noted that the supply of gas via the Trans-Balkan pipeline from Romania has almost stopped since the beginning of the year.

Bulgartransgaz and Russia’s Gazprom Export company finalized talks in the last days of 2019 and since January 1, Bulgaria has been receiving Russian gas via Turkey instead of Ukraine. Bulgaria will get 2.9 billion cubic meters of gas annually though the new gas compressor station of Strnadzha-2. The country’s gas infrastructure facilities were ready to pump that amount of gas.

Thanks to the fact that gas would be supplied to Bulgaria from Turkey instead of Romania, Sofia will be able to cut spending on transit fees by about 70 million levs (about 35 million euros), while gas will become 5% cheaper.

The TurkStream project envisages the construction of a gas pipeline across the Black Sea to the European part of Turkey and farther to the border with Greece. Gas deliveries via the first stretch of the gas pipeline are meant to meet the requirements of the growing Turkish market, while the second stretch is planned to deliver gas to the countries of Southern and South-Eastern Europe. Gazprom considers Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary potential markets. The capacity of each line is 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year.