Sometimes, the Russian government overestimates its success especially when it comes to the gas industry. For instance, the launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been delayed several times. According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nord Stream 2 is operating, not at the full capacity though. In this situation, the news about the TurkStream gas pipeline may be perceived as an already fulfilled event. On October 21, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva had an official meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. At the press conference after the talks, Lavrov stated that the Bulgarian partners began the construction work on the TurkStream second gas transmission line on Monday, and the project is scheduled to be completed by 2020. However, the same statement was made just a year ago. According to Gazprom’s plan, construction of the Bulgarian branch of the TurkStream should have been completed by the end of this year. It seems, though, that construction works have not even started, and the contractor is busy with legal proceedings surrounding the project. It is very likely that next year the Russian Foreign Ministry will again announce the large-scale pipeline construction. Meanwhile, the United States is actively promoting its liquified natural gas (LNG) supply to the Balkans. Besides, an extensive construction on the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector with the capacity of 3 billion cubic meters of gas per year is underway. In May and August this year, Bulgaria has already received 140 million cubic meters of LNG cargo from the United States via the Greek terminal Revithoussa.
