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Xinhua (1 January 2021)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday presided over the opening ceremony of the Serbian part of the "Balkan Stream" gas pipeline for distributing Russian natural gas to Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.

The opening ceremony for the 400-kilometer-long pipeline was held at a distribution facility some 100 kilometers north of the capital of Belgrade, and attended by government officials and Russian and Serbian stakeholders.

According to a press release of the president's office, Vucic said that the construction of the new pipeline would improve Serbia's energy efficiency and security.

"I want to thank all our Russian friends who participated with us in the construction of this pipeline. Congratulations on a huge job, this is of great importance for our industry, the progress of the Serbian economy, but also of great importance for all the inhabitants of our country," he said.

The Balkan Stream is a branch of the 930-kilometer-long TurkStream gas pipeline, a project of Russia's Gazprom and Turkey's Botas which can transport around 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The new pipeline starts at Serbia's border with Bulgaria at the city of Zajecar and stretches all the way to Horgos, a village bordering Hungary.

The independent gas transport operator for the pipeline is the company Gastrans, a joint enterprise of Russia's Gazprom and Serbia's public enterprise Srbijagas.

Vucic said that the Serbian side will charge transit taxes together with the partner company, which will help pay the construction cost of the pipeline, explaining that the new distribution will be much cheaper than the former delivery route to Serbia across Ukraine and Hungary. 

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-01/01/c_139635375.htm