TASS-FACTBOX. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a working trip to the Black Sea resort city of Anapa on June 23 to take part in the ceremony of joining the shallow water and deep-sea sections of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.
The Turkish Stream is Gazprom’s project to lay the gas pipeline from Russia’s Anapa district to western Turkey along the seabed of the Black Sea. The gas pipeline will stretch over a distance of about 1,100 km and will pump a total of 31.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
As Gazprom Deputy CEO Andrei Kruglov said, planned investment will total about $6 billion. Gazprom intends to carry through the project using only its own funds.
Project’s profile
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his visit to Ankara on December 1, 2014 that Russia was giving up the South Stream gas pipeline project intended to be built along the seabed of the Black Sea to deliver natural gas to South and Central Europe.
Russia made this decision in the wake of the project’s obstruction by the European Commission, which demanded that it should be brought into compliance with the European anti-trust legislation. Russia also announced at the time that it would replace the South Stream project with a pipe of a similar capacity that would run across Turkey (the project was eventually called the Turkish Stream).
On the same day, Gazprom and Turkey’s Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding.
On June 18, 2015, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Greek Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis signed a memorandum of cooperation in the construction and operation of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline on the territory of Greece.
After Russia and Turkey agreed on engineering and technical issues, both countries held a ceremony in Istanbul on October 10, 2016 to sign an inter-governmental agreement on the Turkish Stream project.
In December 2016 - January 2017, the document was ratified by the parliaments of Turkey and Russia.
The work to lay the gas pipeline across the Black Sea started on May 7, 2017. Gazprom plans to complete its construction by late 2019.
As Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said, Russia will be able to stop the transit of its natural gas via Ukraine, once the Turkish Stream gas pipeline comes into operation. Today Russia supplies natural gas to Europe (153.54 billion cubic meters in 2016) and Turkey (25.76 billion cubic meters last year) via several trunk gas pipelines. Two of them, Bratstvo (Brotherhood) and the Gas Transport Corridor across Romania - run across the Ukrainian territory and Kiev controls about 60% of Russian natural gas supplies in these directions.
The route
The Turkish Stream gas pipeline stipulates laying two stretches with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters a year each. The two pipes will be laid in parallel along the seabed of the Black Sea. One stretch is intended for natural gas deliveries to Turkish consumers and the other will supply Russian natural gas to South and Southeast Europe.
The pipeline’s stretches will run from the Russkaya compressor station in the Anapa district in south Russia to Turkey’s European part. Both stretches will surface on the shore of the European part of Turkey with the gas delivery point at Luleburgaz for Turkish customers, and a border crossing between Turkey and Greece in Ipsala serving as the delivery point for European customers. The pipeline’s offshore section will stretch over a distance of more than 900 km and the onshore section on the Turkish territory will be 180 km long.
A gas hub is expected to be established on the Turkish-Greek border for European consumers.