MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Moscow is waiting for a signal from Ankara on the Turkish Stream pipeline to prepare new documents on this project, Russia’s president’s aide Yury Ushakov said on Wednesday.
"This issue was thoroughly discussed at the meeting (of Putin) with Turkish president Erdogan. Now we are waiting for certain signals from our Turkish partners," Ushakov told reporters.
He was answering the question on whether any documents on the Turkish Stream will be signed at the St. Petersburg Intentional Economic Forum.
The Turkish Stream will serve as an alternative to the South Stream gas pipeline project abandoned by Russia in December 2014. The larger part of the Turkish Stream pipeline will run across the Black Sea and coincide with the South Stream route approved earlier.
Unlike the South Stream, which implied a large-scale infrastructure construction in Europe, the Turkish Stream project is limited to the construction of a pipeline under the Black Sea and a gas hub on the border between Turkey and Greece. The remaining part of infrastructure will have to be built by Gazprom’s European customers themselves.
Earlier, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said that the construction of the first stretch of the Turkish Stream would start in late June. The pipeline is scheduled to begin operation in December 2016, he said.
The Turkish Stream will have an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, of which 47 billion cubic meters will be delivered to a new gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border. Gazprom Russkaya Company will be in charge of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline construction.
