ST. PETERSBURG, August 9. /TASS/. Turkey is ready to back Russian natural gas supplies to Europe via the Turkish Stream pipeline, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press conference following the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
"The Turkish Stream project will be implemented as well. We’ll be assuming necessary steps to back Russian gas supplies to Europe via this gas pipeline together with involved ministries and departments," he said.
Earlier Erdogan said in an interview with TASS First Deputy General Director Mikhail Gusman that Turkey is ready to promptly take required steps to implement the Turkish Stream project.
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.
Natural gas supplies through the first line of the pipeline are planned for meeting the demand of the growing Turkish market. On December 1, 2014, Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom and Turkish company Botas signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline with the capacity of 63 bln cubic meters of gas per year from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea. In 2015, Russia’s Energy Minister Novak said that at the first stage it was planned to lay two branches of the pipeline.