
Russia’s gas flows to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline reached a seven-month high in July, data analysis by S&P Global Commodity Insights showed Aug. 2.
Total Russian pipeline shipments to Europe – excluding Moldova – reached 2.28 billion cubic meters in July, the highest for pipeline deliveries since December 2022.
TurkStream is a natural gas pipeline that runs from Russia to Turkey. It starts at the Russkaya compressor station near Anapa in the Krasnodar region of Russia and crosses the Black Sea to the receiving terminal in Kıyıköy. Some of the gas flows to Serbia and Hungary.
Two of the main beneficiaries of gas delivered to Europe via TurkStream were Hungary and Serbia, which still maintain close ties with Moscow despite Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Deliveries via TurkStream to Southeastern Europe rose sharply in July, reaching a record monthly level of 1.29 billion cubic meters, the data showed. The previous monthly record was 1.28 billion cubic meters in December 2021.
Russia’s Gazprom said in April it would consider supplying additional gas to Hungary in 2023 and introduce a payment deferral mechanism for any additional gas deliveries.
Hungary signed a 15-year contract with Gazprom in September 2021 to supply 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, but also imported additional volumes of Russian gas in August, September and October last year.
Russian gas can also be delivered to Romania, Greece, northern Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina via TurkStream. The pipeline began operations in January 2020.
After Russia launched an all-out war in Ukraine, many Western countries reduced or stopped gas supplies from Russia to reduce dependence. However, Serbia is not in line with European countries on this issue either, but continues to receive Russian gas along with Hungary.
The European Union has repeatedly called on Serbia, as a candidate country for the EU, to adapt its foreign policy to this, but official Belgrade ignores these calls.
Despite the increase, deliveries from Russia remain low and still well below the recent monthly peak of just under 10 bcm in March 2022.
Russian pipeline deliveries to Europe are currently limited to flows via Ukraine to the Sudzha point on the Russian-Ukrainian border and via the European leg of TurkStream.
Supplies to Europe have been gradually reduced through 2022, with deliveries via the Yamal-Europe and Nord Stream pipelines discontinued and supplies through Ukraine significantly curtailed.
Then, in late September 2022, the Nord Stream twin-strand pipeline was hit by a suspected sabotage attack that rendered the system unusable. /TheGeopost/