Gazprom plans to supply gas to Turkey before Azerbaijan

Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz have agreed on the route of the new Russian gas pipeline to Europe, which has been called "Turkish Stream." 

"We have agreed to organize work in a way to sign an inter-governmental agreement on the gas pipeline in the second quarter of this year and deliver the first gas to Turkish territory in December 2016. We’ll direct the capacity of the gas pipe’s first line - 15.75 billion cubic meters - fully to the Turkish market.

Considering the degree of readiness of the "Russkaya" compressor station and the larger part of the route, this timeframe is absolutely realistic," abc.az cited Miller as saying. 

Miller and Yildiz discussed preliminary technical and economic calculations for the new project and made a decision on its route. The Turkish Stream gas pipe’s four lines will have a total capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. The new gas pipeline will run 660 km (410 miles) along the old corridor of the South Stream project abandoned by Russia and 250 km (155 miles) in the new corridor, towards Turkey’s European part.

Today Gazprom will send a request for design and survey work of the new Turkish maritime section. Botas has been appointed as the authorized company from the Turkish side.

Gazprom and Botas will prepare during a week a joint schedule plan of basic measures under the project. According to Miller, the co-creation of the gas transmission facilities within the framework of such an important project makes Gazprom and Botas strategic infrastructure partners. 

"Our priority is to analyze the route options on the Turkish territory, defining the exit point from the sea, a point of gas delivery to consumers of Turkey and the point of intersection of the Turkish-Greek border," Miller said. 

At that, even the first stage of the Turkish flow will be comparable to the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP), designed originally to supply 16 bn cubic meters of Azeri gas (10 bn cu m for the EU and 6 bn cu m for western Turkey).