Gazprom eyes first gas via new route to Turkey by 2017

MOSCOW - Reuters

CİHAN Photo

Russia’s Gazprom plans to supply the first gas via a new route to Turkey in December 2016, Chief Executive Alexei Miller said in a statement on Jan. 27.

Gazprom said last year that it would build a new pipeline to Turkey with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year in order to bypass Ukraine. It had earlier scrapped a planned South Stream pipeline over disagreements with the European Union.

Under the new plan, the EU would have to build its own link to the proposed pipeline to Turkey to get Russian gas, which now accounts for around a third of Europe’s needs. Around half of that is currently being pumped via Ukraine.

On Jan. 27, Miller said Turkey is already receiving Russian gas via existing routes, importing 27.4 bcm last year.

Miller added that Moscow and Ankara would sign an agreement on building the pipeline in the second quarter of 2015, and the new pipeline would consist of four lines of 15.75 bcm each, with the first one supplying Turkey only. Gazprom has still to reveal the estimated cost of the project.

The EU, at loggerheads with Moscow over unrest Ukraine and keen to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, had objected to the $40 billion South Stream pipeline, which was to enter the bloc via Bulgaria, on competition grounds.

The proposed undersea pipeline to Turkey is seen as avoiding that problem. Russia has offered to link it with a gas hub - also yet to be built - at the EU’s southeastern edge, the Turkish-Greek border, to supply southern Europe.