ISTANBUL, October 10. /TASS/. Efficiency of the European branch line of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project depends on thorough assessment of future European needs, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol told TASS on Monday.

"Russia in my view needs to give a second look to its gas policy. As far as Europe is concerned, Russia is facing three important challenges. One - lots of energy will be coming from the US, Australia and Asia in the next few years. Secondly - renewable costs are declining and thirdly - as a result of efficiency policy we are seeing that demand for natural gas is not that high," Birol said.

"Therefore before suggesting selling gas to Europe, one should look that there is significant market opportunity and this will be viewed in the context whether or not Russia should review its perspective for Europe and provide more flexible contracts to Europe," Birol added.

The Turkish Stream pipeline was announced by the Russian authorities in December 2014 as a replacement for the South Stream pipeline. It was planned that the marine section of Turkish Stream would comprise four lines with the capacity of 15.75 bln cubic meters each. The pipeline is to run 660 km in the old South Stream corridor and 250 km in the new corridor in the direction of the European part of Turkey. The project’s total cost was estimated at 11.4 bln euro, with the cost of the first line amounting to 4.3 bln euro.