ST. PETERSBURG, May 26. /TASS/. Russia’s state-run gas giant Gazprom and Turkey signed a protocol on Saturday on a land-based part of the transit leg of the TurkStream gas pipeline, due to supply Russian gas to European customers, Gazprom said.

In addition to the protocol, Gazprom and Botas inked an agreement on conditions and parameters for the section construction, which would enable the sides to take practical steps in the project. The TurkAkim Gaz Tasima A. S. joint venture will be set up to build the land-based part of the pipeline.

In September last year, Gazprom's Management Committee approved creating a joint project with Turkish Botas for the construction of the overland section of the TurkStream gas pipeline.

Gazprom acquiring of 50 shares in the joint project company TurkAkim Gaz Tasima A.S. with a total value of 50,000 Turkish lira was also approved, which is 50% of the authorized capital of the joint company.

Gazprom said earlier that the joint venture is being created on a parity basis for the implementation of the Turkish section of the second line of TurkStream within the framework of the intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkey.

Gazprom estimates the cost of construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline at 7bln euro.

In May 2017, Gazprom began construction of the offshore section of the TurkStream near the Russian Black Sea coast. 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 line 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 line 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).