US opposes to Turkish Stream pipeline project with Russia: Official

LONDON

The United States on Nov. 29 expressed its objections to Ankara’s gas pipeline project with Russia, the Turkish Stream, Reuters has reported.

According to the report, John McCarrick, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources, stated that the U.S. opposed to multiple Turkish Stream gas pipeline projects planned by Russia to deliver gas to Turkey.

The Turkish Stream project envisages building a gas pipeline along the seabed of the Black Sea to the European part of Turkey and farther on to the border with Greece.

The pipeline’s offshore section is expected to equal about 910 kilometers and its overland segment across Turkey will stretch over a distance of 180 km.

Separately, McCarrick also stated that Washington expected Russia’s Nord Stream II gas pipeline to Germany not to be built, adding that if the Gazprom-led deal with European backers is reached, it will need to examine the “contours” of the deal before deciding whether European companies could face U.S. sanctions.

He also called the Nord Stream II “a political project by the Russian government meant to divert existing flows across Ukraine to Europe and deprive Ukraine of transit payments.”

McCarrick added that the U.S. was liberalizing rules to increase LNG exports and was working with European allies to determine the needed infrastructure to drive demand.

During a meeting on Oct. 31 in Istanbul, the project managers for the Turkish Stream had announced that first gas would be pumped in 2019 from Turkish Stream to Turkey, while noting that negotiations for the route for a second section to Europe still continue.

On Nov. 4, the first pipeline of the Turkish Stream Offshore Gas Pipeline entered Turkey’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the project management had announced in a statement.

In total, some 448 km of the pipeline were laid down, equally divided over the two lines, according to the statement, which added that the construction of nearly 25 percent of the offshore pipeline section has been completed in less than six months.