South Stream Transport BV, which is the operator of Turkish Stream, has received back its license from the Netherlands, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said . He posted his speech on Facebook. The license was revoked ahead of schedule at the end of September due to EU sanctions.
“Yesterday, the Dutch authorities returned the export license to the company. Gazprom also confirmed this,” the Hungarian Foreign Minister said (quote from the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti). According to him, he consulted a lot with the Minister of Energy of the Netherlands.
Szijjarto noted that the revocation of the license cannot harm the supply, but in the future the situation "would not be encouraging." At the same time, according to media reports, the withdrawal of the license meant a complete shutdown of the gas pipeline. This was also reported by the general director of the operating company Oleg Aksyutin. According to him, the revocation of the license forces him to demand "to suspend the implementation of all contracts related to the technical support of the gas pipeline."
At the time the license was revoked in September, Turkish Stream remained the last gas supply route to Europe operating without interruption. The Yamal-Europe, passing through the territory of Poland, was stopped in May, both Nord Streams were damaged, the gas pipeline through Ukraine was cut by a third.