Gazprom Starts TurkStream Landfall Work

Gazprom subsidiary South Stream Transport has started building the receiving terminal of the TurkStream gas pipeline, it said January 17. The terminal is on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea, some 100 km west of Istanbul, near the village of Kiyikoy.

It also said that the onshore section on the Russian side of the Black Sea, near the city of Anapa, will be complete by the end of this year.

Petrofac won the contract to build the terminal in September 2017 and has engaged Tekfen, one of Turkey's leading construction companies, as its main subcontractor.

The offshore component of the system comprises two 15.75bn m³/yr parallel pipelines under the Black Sea.

Gazprom said in November 2017 that it has completed the construction of the offshore sections of the two TurkStream lines in Russian Black Sea waters and had started the Turkish offshore section.

The company increased the budget in 2018 to a record $21.9bn to complete three pipelines: TurkStream, Power of Siberia (with 38bn m³/yr capacity to supply China) and the Nord Stream 2 (NS2, with 55bn m3/yr capacity to supply Germany) in two years. This represents an increase of one-third, compared with its base program for 2017.

As of last October more than 1,095 km of the Power of Siberia pipeline, or 50.7% of the total length of its prime section from the Chayandinskoye field to Blagoveshchensk (near the border with China in the far east) had been built.

Russian Gazprom plans to construct NS2 and has concluded all the contracts for materials, equipment and services that will be needed for its 55bn m³/yr capacity.

Gazprom reported January 15 that spending this year on TurkStream will double, to rubles 182.4bn ($3.21bn). The budget of Power of Siberia will increase by 37.2% to $3.83bn and Gazprom plans to spend $2bn on NS2, an increase of 11.2% on last year. The final route of NS2 has not been decided as Denmark has yet to give Gazprom permission for NS2 to follow NS1 through its waters.