The Turkish Stream pipeline faces a few political headwinds as Turkey grapples with political crisis.
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In December last year, Gazprom and Turkish gas company Botas signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of Turkish Stream – a gas pipeline meant to carry up to 63 bcm of Russian gas a year across the Black Sea to Turkey and a distribution centre at the border with Greece for delivery to the EU.
The pipeline was conjured up in Moscow following its failure to get the so-called South Stream up and running with European partners after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow for its annexation of Crimea and aggressions in eastern Ukraine.
“At present, we can say that the maximum capacity of Turkish Stream can be 32 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas”. European governments have expressed concerns about Gazprom’s practices in the regional energy market, saying they’re opposed to companies that control both transit arteries and reserves. “Technically it will be the same as the Nord Stream”.
The Gazprom chief said a draft intergovernmental agreement, envisioning the construction of a first thread and negotiations over a second, have been prepared. Turkey voters go to the polls on November. 1. “That means Russian Federation doesn’t have much chance to continue these talks before the beginning of next year”, Kornilov said.
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“Russia plans not more than two lines”, Miller said. “But as far as that Balkans are concerned here we have seen not straight forward reaction of local authorities”, Kornilov said, adding that while a few countries have shown interest, other countries like FYROM, for example, “has not said “yes”. The Russian expert also stressed that the response of the European Commission will also play a key role for extending the Turkish pipeline to Europe.
