"Turkish Stream" Project: "No Problem" in Relations between Russian and Turkey Have

• 10.27.2016, 21:20
•  EEU,  Region,  World

AP Photo

Russia and Turkey do their best to show the final and irreversible nature of their reconciliation. From this point of view the "Turkish Stream" gas pipeline project is quite useful. But it still does not go beyond propaganda.

Berat Albayrak, Turkey's Energy Minister, said Turkey does not foresee a delay to the scheduled timetable for the TurkStream natural gas pipeline project announced by the Russian project partner Gazprom's chairman. He had declared that the two lines would be ready by the end of 2019, YeniSafak reports. Albayrak said it would be a win-win project for Turkey.

It should be reminded that after the closed meeting between the Presidents of Russia and Turkey in Istanbul, the two countries signed the "Turkish Stream" gas pipeline intergovernmental agreement. The pipeline will carry Russian natural gas to Turkey and to Europe under the Black Sea. The pipeline will consist of two lines. Earlier the Russian side said it plans to complete the construction of the first line by 2019. Its annual capacity is to be 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas (bcma). The second line will supply gas to European consumers.

But on October 24 CEO of Gazprom, Alexey Miller during the meeting with the Russian President on said that according to the project schedule both pipelines completed by the end of 2019, Kremlin press service reports. Miller said the necessary gas transport infrastructure is already created by the Russian side for delivering gas to the sub-sea pipeline.

Of course, ambitious statements on such a problematic issue like the "Turkish Stream" gas pipeline project may serve for propaganda in order to prove the Russian-Turkish reconciliation. But they cannot still guarantee the implementation of the project that needs significant financial investments. Besides, they need to come to an agreement with Europe (at the level of Brussels or individual European countries) on gas sales which is,to say the least, quite problematic at the moment.