Russia ready to ensure required natural gas deliveries to Europe — energy minister
What Russia needs is that European consumers show relevant interest in the development of infrastructure across the Black Sea and across the countries adjacent to the Black Sea to Europe
ST. PETERSBURG, June 28. /TASS/. Russia is ready to ensure required natural gas deliveries to Europe, including in case of the consumers' interest in the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday.
"Southeastern Europe has the requirement for additional natural gas deliveries and reliable energy provision. In this sense, Russia is ready to supply the required amount of natural gas as we have the resources and we are competitive," the minister said.
"That is why, if European consumers show the relevant interest in the development of infrastructure across the Black Sea and across the countries adjacent to the Black Sea to Europe, we will undoubtedly ensure all the deliveries and will cooperate," the minister said, replying to a question about the prospects of the Turkish Stream project.
It was reported on Monday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had sent Russian leader Vladimir Putin a letter. As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Erdogan had earlier apologized to Putin for the Russian Su-24 bomber downed by a Turkish fighter jet.
The Turkish president urged to restore traditional friendly relations between the two countries.
Russia’s government suspended on December 1, 2015 the work of the Russian-Turkish inter-governmental commission for trade and economic cooperation, which is headed on Russia’s behalf by Energy Minister Novak.
The commission was expected to discuss the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project but Novak said on December 3 that it had been suspended.
Gazprom Management Board member Oleg Aksyutin said in February 2016 that the timeframe of the project’s implementation would be specified after the Russian-Turkish relations came to normal and both countries signed inter-governmental agreements.
The Turkish Stream is designed to ensure additional natural gas deliveries to the markets of Turkey and Southern and Southeastern European countries. The agreement on the gas pipeline construction was reached in December 2014.
It was initially planned that the four stretches of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline would have a total capacity of 63 billion cubic meters annually, of which 16 billion cu m would be supplied to Turkey and 47 billion cu m to the gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border.