Gazprom Plans to Start Pumping Gas to Turkey via New Pipeline in Dec 2016

World » RUSSIA | January 27, 2015, Tuesday // 20:44
Bulgaria: Gazprom Plans to Start Pumping Gas to Turkey via New Pipeline in Dec 2016 Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller. Photo EPA/BGNES

Russia’s Gazprom said on Tuesday a planned gas pipeline to Turkey will become operational by the end of next year.

“We agreed to plan our work in such a way that would allow us to sign an Intergovernmental Agreement on the gas pipeline in the second quarter this year, therefore the first gas would come to Turkey in December 2016,” Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said in a statement issued after talks with Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz inAnkara.

Russia announced it would build the new gas pipeline to Turkey across the Black Sea after abandoning  the construction of the South Stream pipeline to the European Union last month.

South Stream designed to bypass Ukraine had been projected to cross the Black Sea and come ashore in Bulgaria with a further route through Europe, ending at a gas hub in Austria.

Moscow cancelled the project last month as its relations with the EU soured over the Ukraine crisis and the bloc objected to South Stream on competition grounds.

Russia has repeatedly denied Western accusations it is providing arms and equipment to pro-Russian rebels fighting Kiev government forces in eastern Ukraine.

During their meeting Miller and Yildiz discussed the preliminary feasibility study of the new gas pipeline and approved its new route.

“The four strings will have an aggregate capacity of 63 billion cubic meters a year. 660 kilometers of the pipeline’s route will be laid within the old corridor of South Stream and 250 kilometers – within a new corridor towards the European part of Turkey,” according to the statement.

The first string's capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters will be exclusively intended for Turkish consumers.

The Russian gas giant also said it will apply to carry out design and exploration work in Turkish territorial waters on Wednesday.

Russia will pay for the laying of the pipes on the seabed while the capacity within Turkish territory will be developed jointly.

The stakes of Gazprom and Turkish gas company Botas in the project will be specified at future meetings.

“The joint construction of the gas transportation facilities within such an important project would create the strategic infrastructure partnership between Gazprom and Botas,” Miller said.

Gazprom and Botas will prepare a joint plan for the implementation of the project within a week.

Gazprom has said EU will be able to buy gas at a hub which is expected to be built at Turkey’s border with Greece. Russian gas supplies meet around a third of Europe's needs with around half of that amount being transited via Ukraine.

Turkey is Gazprom’s second largest market after Germany. Gazprom supplied Turkey with 27.4 billion cubic meters of gas last year via the Blue Stream and the Trans-Balkan gas pipelines.

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Tags: Russia, turkey, Gazprom, Botas, Miller, Yildiz, South stream

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