Gazprom receives survey permit for TurkStream project

Work on the construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline project intensifies as Russian energy firm Gazprom has received another permit from Turkish authorities.

To remind, after Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said in an interview with Bloomberg at the beginning of September that the Turkish Stream, designed to carry Russian gas to Turkey, would be eventually built, the work on the project resumed after it had been put on hold since November 2015.

Namely, the project was halted last year after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on its way to a mission in Syria. Turkey then said the plane had violated its airspace.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said, only a few days after Putin’s interview, that it received through diplomatic channels the first permits for the TurkStream project from the authorities of the Turkish Republic.

Also, Alexey Miller, Gazprom Chairman, and Berat Albayrak, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, reached an agreement to shortly complete all the required preparatory procedures for launching the TurkStream project.

A week later, the Russian giant received further permits which concern the construction of the TurkStream’s offshore section as part of the preparatory procedures for resuming the project.

In the latest development, Gazprom said on Thursday that it received, again via diplomatic channels, a survey permit for two strings of the TurkStream gas pipeline’s offshore section in Turkey’s territorial waters.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, said: “I would like to highlight the constructiveness and promptness on the part of our Turkish partners. The TurkStream project is progressing at commendable speed. We have received another important permit for the project.”

The pipeline, once constructed, will run 660 kilometers along the old route of the South Stream and cover 250 kilometers of a new route toward the European part of Turkey. It is planned that the first gas pipeline string will be used exclusively for gas supplies to the Turkish market.

Offshore Energy Today Staff