Contract of Allseas with South Stream Transport for gas pipeline laying continues to be effective - company

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Contract of Swiss Allseas with Gazprom’s subsidiary South Stream Transport B.V. for laying the second line of the South Stream gas pipeline was not terminated and remains in effect, press service of Allseas told TASS on Wednesday. The Swiss company has not yet been aware whether the contract may be used to lay the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. "The contract for South Stream was not terminated, but we do not know whether there is any possible continuation in the future of the contract, as this is entirely outside our perception. Also, for Turkish Stream, we do not know whether we might be involved," Allseas told TASS. 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. Earlier, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the construction of the first stretch of the Turkish Stream would start in late June. The pipeline is scheduled to begin operation in December 2016, he said. 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. Read more