ANKARA, April 3. /TASS/. The construction of the first line of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline will be completed in May, Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s gas producer Gazprom Alexei Miller said Tuesday.

"A total of 827 kilometers of the first line (of the Turkish Stream pipeline - TASS) have already been constructed, and the construction of the first line of the gas pipeline will be completed in first ten days of May," he said. "The remaining part is to construct the import terminal and the second line, so everything goes as planned," CEO added.

According to Miller, a total of 1,047 kilometers of the gas pipeline have been constructed as of today, which is 55% of total length of its offshore segment.

Gazprom began the construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream near the Russian Black Sea coast in May 2017. The project envisions the construction of the gas pipeline through the Black Sea to the European part of Turkey and further on to the border with Greece. The length of its offshore segment is expected at around 930 kilometers, while the overland part on the Turkish territory will be 180 kilometers.

The first line will be meant for the Turkish market, the second - for gas supply to the countries of South and South-Eastern Europe. The capacity of each line will be 15.75 bln cubic meters of gas per year.

In January, Gazprom received permission from Turkish authorities to build the second line of the offshore section of the gas pipeline to the coast of Turkey. Investments of Gazprom in the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline for 2018 are planned at around 182.4 bln rubles ($3.16 bln) versus almost 93 bln rubles ($1.61 bln) in 2017.

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier on Tuesday that Moscow and Ankara are discussing the protocol on laying the overland section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. In September 2017, Gazprom's board of directors approved the move to set up a joint project company with the Turkish Botas for the construction of the overland section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.

Russia’s gas producer estimates the cost of the Turkish stream construction at 7 bln euros. Deputy Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee Andrey Kruglov said earlier that, most likely, Turkish Stream would initially be financed from the budget of Gazprom, and then project bonds would be issued.

The first gas supplies are planned for the end of 2019. The construction of the offshore segment of the gas pipeline is carried out by South Stream Transport B.V. (100% subsidiary of Gazprom).