The special vessel that was supposed to lay the pipes for the South Stream gas pipeline has left Bulgaria’s Port Burgas to start work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project.

The special pipe-laying vessel, Saipem 7000, left Port Burgas on Monday and headed into the Black Sea, according to the Marine Traffic Global Positionining System, as cited by Russian online newspaper Vzglyad and money.bg.

Castro Sei, the other pipe-laying vessel of Saipem involved in the cancelled South Stream project, remains in Burgas at this stage.

Italy’s Saipem was contracted by Gazprom lay the pipe's offshore section.

However, Vladimir Putin announced in December 2014 that Russia was quitting the South Stream gas pipeline project.

On May 8 Saipem announced the renewal of the contract with South Stream Transport on the construction of the offshore section of the alternative gas pipeline project, Turkish.

The pipe-laying works for Turkish Stream will be carried out at a speed of around 3 kilometers a day, according to RIA Novosti.

Meanwhile, Turkey announced Monday that it had given the green light to engineering studies for Turkish Stream in its exclusive economic zone and territorial waters.

660 kilometers of the offshore route of Turkish Stream coincide with the route of South Stream, but the new project also includes a new corridor of 250 kilometers towards the European part of Turkey.

The entire capacity of Turkish Stream has been earmarked for the Turkish market.