MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. Over the past two weeks, 12 attacks on Gazprom facilities involved in supplying gas via the Turkstream and Blue Stream pipelines to Turkey have been repelled, the top Russian gas company reported.
Today, the Russkaya compressor station in southern Russia came under another air attack, while the Beregovaya and Kazachya compressor stations were targeted yesterday.
"In the last two weeks alone, starting on February 24, Gazprom facilities in southern Russia have been attacked 12 times. These facilities are part of critical energy infrastructure and ensure the reliability of gas exports via the Turkstream and Blue Stream pipelines. All attacks have been repelled," Gazprom said.
Speaking at a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of possible attempts to sabotage the Turkstream and Blue Stream pipelines running along the bottom of the Black Sea. During a meeting with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin on March 4, Putin shared information about Kiev's preparations to sabotage Turkstream. In response, Budapest decided to strengthen protection of critical energy facilities against possible attacks by Kiev.
Russia supplies gas to Turkey via two pipelines across the Black Sea. The Blue Stream pipeline, commissioned in early 2003, has a design capacity of 16 billion cubic meters per year and a total length of 1,213 km. The Turkstream export pipeline has two lines: one for Turkish consumers and the other for supplies to Southern and Southeastern Europe. Turkstream has a total capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters and began operating in January 2020.
Currently, Turkstream is the only operational route for Russian gas supplies to Europe after the cessation of transit through Ukraine. The pipeline starts at the Russkaya compressor station near Anapa.