MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russia and Bulgaria show interest in the development of the Turkish Stream pipeline project in the direction of Bulgaria, but no concrete agreements have been reached during the talks between President Vladimir Putin and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"They did not agree yet. There was no task to agree, and there was no opportunity to negotiate between the president and the prime minister about this. Bulgaria shows interest," Peskov said.
According to the Kremlin spokesman, the feasibility of this interest in practice is limited due to a number of reasons.
"It is impossible for Bulgaria to implement it without certain guarantees from the European Commission, given the previous experience," Peskov said.
But considering that both sides are interested anyway, Sofia and Moscow will continue working on this issue, he added.
In particular the Bulgarian side voiced the idea of creating a hub, Peskov said.
"They want to get a branch (of the pipeline), but the question is where it will, from what line, through what boundaries?" Peskov said.
He drew attention to the fact that in the past the unfinished South Stream pipeline was heading towards Bulgaria, and now when the Turkish Stream has almost been implemented it's more difficult to make any new tie-in.
The Kremlin spokesman could not answer how exactly this initiative could be technically implemented.
Black Sea gas pipelines
On December 1, 2014, during his visit to Ankara, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was abandoning the South Stream gas pipeline project. This decision was made after the European Commission opposed the project and demanded that it should be brought into line with the European antimonopoly legislation.
Putin said that the South Stream would be replaced with a pipeline of similar capacity. Later that project became known as the Turkish Stream.
Gazprom began construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream near the Russian Black Sea coast in May 2017. The project involved construction of the gas pipeline through the Black Sea to the European part of Turkey and further to the border with Greece. The length of the sea part of the pipe is expected at around 930 km, the overland part on the Turkish territory - 180 km.
The first leg will be intended for the Turkish market, the second - for gas supply to the countries of South and South-Eastern Europe. The capacity of each leg reaches 15.75 bln cubic meters of gas per year.
The first gas supplies are planned for the end of 2019. Construction of a sea section of the gas pipeline is carried out by South Stream Transport B.V. (100% subsidiary of Gazprom).