Construction of Greece’s continuation of Turkish Stream to start in 2016 - Russian Energy Minister

ST. PETERSBURG, June 19. /TASS/. The construction of Greece’s continuation of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline will start in 2016 and finish in 2019, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday. "The construction will start in 2016 and finish by end-2019," he said. The Minister added that the capacity of Greece’s continuation of the pipeline will reach 47 bln cubic meters. As was reported earlier Gazprom and Turkish Botas signed a memorandum of understanding on December 1, 2014 on building the pipeline’s offshore section across the Black Sea. The Turkish Stream will have an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, of which 47 billion cubic meters will be delivered to a new gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border. Gazprom Russkaya Company will be in charge of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline construction. The agreement on construction of the first line is expected to be signed till the end of June or in early July this year. The Turkish Stream will serve as an alternative to the South Stream gas pipeline project abandoned by Russia in December 2014. The larger part of the Turkish Stream pipeline will run across the Black Sea and coincide with the South Stream route approved earlier. Unlike the South Stream, which implied a large-scale infrastructure construction in Europe, the Turkish Stream project is limited to the construction of a pipeline under the Black Sea and a gas hub on the border between Turkey and Greece. The remaining part of infrastructure will have to be built by Gazprom’s European customers themselves. In early may Gazprom instructed to begin the Turkish Stream construction. The contractor had been waiting for it since December 1, 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia abandoned the South Stream project implementation and was embarking on the Turkish stream instead. Earlier, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the Turkish Stream pipeline is scheduled to begin operation in December 2016. Read more