The
Turkish Stream pipeline will become operational in December 2016, said head of
Gazprom Aleksey Miller.
Miller said that, An agreement [between Russia and Turkey] has been reached on operational commissioning
and the start of gas deliveries via Turkish Stream in December 2016, according
to a statement released by Gazprom. The agreement was signed by Miller and Turkish
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz during a meeting on
Thursday. The head of Gazprom said that Gazprom
will regard today’s agreements as a basis for the schedule of its work on the
Turkish Stream project.
The
construction of Turkish Stream was agreed between Russian Gazprom and Turkish
Botas in December 2014. The pipeline with an annual capacity of 63 billion
cubic meters will replace the South Stream, which was suspended over the EU’s
stance on Russia.
Turkish
Stream will travel from Russia, transit through Turkey, and stop at the Greek
border, giving Russia access to the Southern European market.
Miller
and Yildiz have also discussed modernization of the existing Blue Stream gas
pipeline, Gazprom said in its statement.Blue
Stream, which possesses annual capacity of 16 billion cubic meters, runs under
the Black Sea and provides direct delivery of gas to Turkish consumers.
In the
first four months of 2015 Blue Stream delivered about 5.4 billion cubic meters
of gas from Russia to Turkey, which is 4 percent more than in the same period
of 2014, according to operational data. Consumption of natural gas has more
than doubled over the past 10 years, and the Turkish market is interested in a
further increase in energy exports from Russia, the negotiators said.
Russian
president Vladimir Putin said Russia is
ready to consider providing finance to Greek companies that will participate in
the construction of a gas pipeline continuing the Turkish Stream, the press
service of the Kremlin confirmed in a statement.
Source: http://rt.com/