A Beacon Light for Turkish Stream
First it was just like a conversation balloon in a comic strip, a change in name and re-making a route for an earlier pipeline. However today, Russian natural gas exporter OAO Gazprom finally took a step forward for the Turkish Stream Pipeline, and relayed coordinates to Turkey.
The decision took almost seven months from when Russian President Vladimir Putin first declared its intention to shelve the $45 billion South Stream Pipeline on opposition from the European Union and proposed a new pipeline, Turkish Stream in a state visit to Ankara in late December 2014. Putin said Gazprom will build the new link to Turkey would aim to bypass Ukraine's network from 2020. The greater part of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline will be laid within the corridor formerly intended for the scrapped South Stream Pipeline.
"Preliminary permission required to build pipeline, developments possible this week," Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in a press conference in Ankara today. Yildiz, who travelled with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Baku, Azerbaijan over the weekend, gave some detailed information regarding talks between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
"We held talks about Russian investments in nuclear energy in Turkey and also Turkish Stream Pipeline. Earlier we required the necessary coordinates for natural gas pipeline route from Gazprom via Turkish Foreign Ministry. Gazprom relayed the route details for the Turkish Stream. We'll give preliminary permission for the feasibility report for the pipeline, which may be given this week," Yildiz said.
Earlier this month, Yildiz has said that Gazprom may start to build first pipeline after finalizing the necessary permissions. "The permission that we give will be regarding for just one pipeline, for which Erdogan and Putin held talks about over the weekend in Baku," he said.
The proposed first stage of the project would increase capacity by 16 billion cubic meters, part of plans to add another 63 BCM to flow to Turkey and onward to the EU, bypassing Ukraine. "Although Gazprom can begin construction of the underwater section immediately, the December 2016 deadline seems too optimistic," Alexei Kokin, an energy analyst in Uralsib brokerage, based in Moscow, Russia wrote in a note to its clients.
- MURAT TINAS