State Duma has ratified Russia-Turkey agreement on Turkish Stream pipeline construction

MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) has approved ratification of the agreement between Russia and Turkey on construction of two lines of the Turkish Stream pipeline. The agreement was signed for 30 years and can be extended every five years after the expiration of that period. The agreement was signed in Istanbul on October 10, 2016 and approved at the meeting of the Russian Government on December 15 of the last year. "The agreement provides for the construction of two threads of the truck gas pipeline across the Black Sea bottom," CEO of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said, adding that these threads are to be built by December 2019. After Russia abandoned the South Stream project in 2014 over the European Union’s insistence on its compliance with the so-called Third Energy Package, it was decided to launch an alternative project - Turkish Stream. However talks on the project were soon suspended over a chill in Russia-Turkey bilateral relations. After the two countries resumed full-format relations, the work on the Turkish Stream project was continued. The project provides for the construction of a gas pipeline across the Black Sea bed to Turkey’s European part, with further extension to the border with Greece. The seabed section is about 910 kilometers and the mainland section in Turkey - 180 kilometers. The project cost was earlier estimated at 11.4 billion euro. Read more