MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Gazprom has completed the creation of capacities to feed gas to the Turkish Stream pipeline, the Russian party is 100% ready for supplies, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told a conference call on Thursday.
In the second half of 2017, the laying of the pipeline in the Black Sea will start, he said.
"We also successfully continued working in the implementation of another large export gas transportation project - Turkish Stream. We obtained permits and approvals, and in the second half of 2017 we'll start laying the pipes in the Black Sea. It should be noted that this year we have finished construction of facilities on the Russian territory to feed 31.5 bln cubic meters of gas to Turkish Stream. This also applies to the pipeline infrastructure and compressor stations. That means that judging by the results of our work in 2016, the Russian party is 100% ready for supplying gas via the Turkish Stream," Miller said.
In December 2014, Putin announced the termination of the South Stream project following disagreements with the EU. Brussels insisted that the project should comply with the so-called Third Energy Package, although it is not part of the intra-European gas infrastructure.
It was decided to build Turkish Stream instead of the South Stream but this project was later suspended, in particular due to the crisis in the Russian-Turkish relations.
On August 9, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in St. Petersburg. After those talks it was decided to resume work on the Turkish Stream project, to set up a working group and to work a road map.
It was planned that the marine section of Turkish Stream will consist of four lines each with the capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters. The pipeline is to stretch by 660 km in the old corridor of the South Stream and by 250 km in a new corridor in the direction of the European part of Turkey.