Serbia wants to receive Russian gas through the TurkStream natural gas pipeline, Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic said on Monday.
According to Russian news agency Sputnik, Antic affirmed that with Serbia's anticipated economic growth, it aims to increase gas imports from Russia.
He said Serbia has set its hopes on obtaining supplies via the TurkStream and on becoming a transit country for the pipeline.
'The gas market is growing in Serbia and cooperation between Russian and Serbian energy companies are at a high level,' Antic said.
On May 24, Alexey Miller, chairman of the Gazprom met with Antic and discussed trends in the development of the energy sector in southeastern Europe, paying particular attention to growing demand for Russian gas.
According to preliminary data, between Jan. 1 and May 23, 2018, Gazprom delivered about 1 billion cubic meters of gas to Serbia, an increase of 5.8 percent against the same period of 2017.
Serbia on average imports around 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia on an annual basis.
The TurkStream natural gas project consists of two lines with a total of 31.5 billion cubic meters of capacity.
The first line’s offshore construction will serve Turkey while the second line is expected to send gas to Europe.
Gazprom continues negotiations with Bulgaria, Italy and Greece for the second line of the project.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the TurkStream in 2014, after dropping the South Stream project.
Russia sought alternative routes for gas deliveries to bypass Ukraine and out of this, the TurkStream evolved, opening up a new transit route for Russian gas and helping Turkey's increasing gas demand.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr