Turkey approves engineering surveys for TurkStream

Turkey has given permission to Gazprom to conduct offshore engineering surveys within Turkey’s exclusive economic zone and territorial waters in the Black Sea necessary for the development of Gazprom’s planned 63 billion m³/yr TurkStream pipeline, Gazprom has announced in a statement.

The permission covers surveys necessary for the construction of the first of the four parallel pipes, each with capacity 15.75 billion m³/yr.

The statement added that Turkey has confirmed that the results of the Environmental Impact Assessment obtained by Gazprom for the development of the section of the now abandoned South Stream gas pipeline which would have passed through Turkey’s EEZ, can be used for the new pipeline.

Turkey and Russia agreed in 2011 to allow the line to pass through Turkey’s EEZ, and Turkey’s environment ministry formally approved the EIA for the South Stream line in July 2014.

However the South Stream line was planned to run from Anapa on Russia’s eastern Black Sea coast through Turkey’s EEZ, and on through Bulgarian waters to make landfall at Varna in Bulgaria, whereas the Turk Stream line is designed to make landfall in Turkey’s European province of Thrace.

Route and supply details

It is planned that gas supplies via the first line will be fully used to meet the needs of the growing Turkish market.

The larger part of the Turkish Stream pipeline (660 km) will run across the Black Sea and coincide with the South Stream route approved earlier. Another 250 km will go along the new route towards the European part of Turkey.

Unlike the South Stream, which implied a large-scale infrastructure construction in Europe, the Turkish Stream project is limited to the construction of a pipeline under the Black Sea and a gas hub on the border between Turkey and Greece.

The remaining part of infrastructure will have to be built by Gazprom's European customers themselves.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: Hellenic Shipping News, Bernama

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/25062015/turkey-approves-engineering-surveys-for-turkstream/