MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russia’s steel pipe manufacturers hope that all their products originally meant for the South Stream project will be redirected to the just-unveiled plan for a gas pipeline to Turkey, the chief of the Pipeline Producers’ Association, Ivan Shabalov, has told TASS, adding that no costs would ensue.

“The South Steam’s infrastructure in Russian territory is absolutely adjustable to the plan of a pipeline to Turkey, Shabalov said. “The Turkish route will entail no losses for Gazprom or for the pipe manufacturers.”

“If a new contract for supplying 63 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Turkey is concluded, that means that the Russian corridor and the Russian stretch of this project will be absolutely identical to South Stream’s. The latter’s estimated throughput was exactly 63 bcm. From that standpoint no changes in the amount of supplies are due,” Shabalov said.

“Russia’s section of South Stream will continue to be laid at the original pace. Possibly, it may even be finalized a little bit faster than Turkey would be prepared for - six to twelve months sooner. We see no reason for a pause. In practice such projects have never been stopped,” Shabalov said.

For laying the seabed stretch of the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea the United Metal Company was to provide 450,000 tons of pipes €630 million worth, and the Izhora Pipe Mill, 260,000 tons €350 million worth.

Since 2011 Gazprom has spent $4.6 billion on the South Stream project. The Turkish alternative provides for the export of the very same 63 billion cubic meters of gas. The pipeline’s starting point remains unchanged - the Russkaya compressor station in the Anapa district of the Krasnodar Territory. The pipeline’s route will run towards the border with Turkey and Greece in bypass of Bulgaria, with Southern Europe being its ultimate destination.

Chelyabinsk pipe supplier ready to build pipeline to Turkey

Russian pipe maker Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) is considering replacing the pipelines it planned to supply to the terminated South Stream project with supplies to an alternative pipeline in Turkey, a company representative told PRIME on Tuesday.

ChelPipe bid in a tender for the construction of the third and fourth lines of South Stream’s underwater part.

“At the moment we have not received any official information from the tender’s organizer, South Stream Transport B.V. Company, on abandoning or halting the tender. If the South Stream project is is abandoned, we are considering an opportunity to substitute the same volumes via a future project of Russian gas transportation to Turkey,” the representative said.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the South Stream pipeline project is closed, blaming failed cooperation with the E.U. in the issue and in particular, Bulgaria, which in June suspended preparations for the construction of the pipeline on orders from the E.U. that said the pipeline laying must be suspended until the project is fully adjusted to the Union's legislation.