Macedonia Shrugs Over Halt to South Stream Pipeline

Macedonian industry is not in danger of suffering from a shortage of gas as a result of the halt to construction of the South Stream pipeline in the region, experts say. 

The pipeline, set to transport Russian gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then to Italy and Austria, transiting several Balkan countries, is facing difficulties.

The project was initially scheduled for completion in 2018, but souring relations between the EU and US with Russia over Ukraine have brought the project into question.

On Sunday Bulgaria and Serbia said they had suspended work on the pipeline after the US and EU complained that it would tighten Russia’s grip on Europe’s energy supplies.

Macedonian experts say the existing gas pipeline that brings Russian gas to Macedonia through Bulgaria is enough to satisfy the country’s needs for some years.

“We have enough capacity to satisfy our needs for the next five to six years, even if additional gas consumers are added to the existing gas pipeline,” Konstantin Dimitrov, head of the Macedonian Centre for Energy Efficiency, MACEF, an NGO, said.

The existing pipeline has a capacity of 800 million cubic meters a year but Macedonia is using only about 160 million cubic metres, most of which goes to several big companies.

Dimitrov said that even the planned gasification of households in the capital, which it is estimated will add another 130 million cubic meters a year, will not be a problem in the mid-term.

Macedonia and Russia signed an agreement to cooperate on construction of the Macedonian leg of the South Stream last July.

In the long run, Dimitrov said he was optimistic that the political problems surrounding the Russian pipeline could be...

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