Putin coming next week for TurkStream ceremony
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin will be in Istanbul on Nov. 19 for the completion ceremony of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline’s sea section, a Kremlin aide said yesterday. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will also attend the ceremony.
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin will head to Istanbul on Nov. 19 to attend a ceremony to mark the completion of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline’s sea section, a Kremlin aide said yesterday.
Once fully complete, the project will include a gas pipeline consisting of two lines, each with a length of 930 kilometers and each with the capacity to deliver 15.7 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the ceremony of ending construction of the sea section of the TurkStream gas pipeline,” Yury Ushakov was quoted as saying by the Izvestiya newspaper.
Ushakov also said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will also be attending the ceremony.
TurkStream is a transit-free gas export pipeline that will stretch across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further extend to Turkey’s borders with neighboring European countries.
The first line is intended for gas supplies to Turkish consumers, while the second will supply gas to south and southeastern Europe. Russian energy giant Gazprom is planning to start the construction of the overland section of the TurkStream’s second gas pipeline in 2019.
The project’s spokeswoman said last Tuesday that the project will be completed by the end of 2019 as planned, according to Anadolu Agency (AA).
Natural gas transmission will take around 52 hours from Russia’s Anapa to its destination in Turkey at Kıyıköy, located in the Kırklareli province in northwestern Turkey, according to officials.
The control room where natural gas transmission will be monitored will be located at the headquarters of the TurkStream project company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
According to the information provided by the TurkStream authorities, the project was designed to operate for at least 50 years.
The first line reached the Turkish shore at the end of April after 930 kilometers of deep-water offshore pipe laying from Anapa, Russia to Kıyıköy, Turkey. TurkStream’s first line will carry 15.75 bcm of natural gas to Turkey.
The project will have a total throughput capacity of 31.5 bcm with the second line that will go to Europe. Russia is reportedly considering options for extending the pipeline through Bulgaria and Serbia or through Greece and Italy.
Following his talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Moscow in late October, Russian President Putin told reporters they were examining all opportunities, including connecting Italy to the TurkStream via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Greece.
In late October, Serbia’s Minister of Mines and Energy Aleksandar Antic said Serbia was ready to join the TurkStream pipeline project.
He had said construction of the pipeline will soon be completed, and Serbia joining the project would be a great opportunity for improving energy security for both the nation and the region.