Brussels, 09/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The chairman of the board of Russian gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, and Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz met in Turkey on Saturday 7 February. At this meeting, the reference points of the route and technical solutions for the construction of the on-shore section in Turkey of Turkish Stream, the planned new Russian-Turkish gas pipeline under the Black Sea, were identified.
After taking a helicopter flight over the planned route, Gazprom points out in a press release, the parties agreed the landfall point (near the village of Kayakoy), the point of delivery of gas to Turkish consumers (in the Luleburgaz area) and the exit area at the Turkish-Greek border (around Epsila). The on-shore section of the pipeline will be 180 kilometres long.
The parties will now turn their attention to permits for the design of Turkish Stream and survey work for the off-shore section. The design of the pipeline, with its proposed capacity of 63 billion cubic metres per year, will take account of the growing demand for gas in the Istanbul area, Gazprom says. The volume of gas to be supplied at the Greek-Turkish border has been determined at 47 billion cubic metres per year.
It was at the end of 2014 that Gazprom and Turkish gas group Botas signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the Turkish Stream project. The two are hoping that a Russia-Turkey inter-governmental agreement will be signed in the second half of this year, with gas beginning to flow by December 2016. (Emmanuel Hagry)