Gazprom Completes 50% of Offshore Section of Turkish Stream Gas Pipeline

Gazprom has completed the laying of 50% of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, reports South Stream Transport B.V, the subsidiary of Gazprom which is implementing the project.

On March 1, Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller, in an interview with Anadolu, reported that Gazprom had laid more than 910 kilometers of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, which is 49% of its total length.

“Laying of 50% of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline ended on March 6. More than 930 kilometers of the Black Sea gas pipeline have been laid in two strings by ‘Pioneering Spirit’ [Editor’s Note: Pioneering Spirit is the world's largest construction vessel, designed for the single-lift installation and removal of large oil and gas platforms and the installation of record-weight pipelines], which carried out the deepwater laying of the Turkish Stream, 706 km of the first line of the gas pipeline and 224 km of the gas pipeline on the second line in 2017,” Miller said.

The laying of the marine section of Turkish Stream was begun on May 7, 2017, by the ship Audacia. On June 23, 2017, Pioneering Spirit look over laying in the deep-water area and then carried out a pipe-laying campaign along the approved route in a round-the-clock mode.

On May 7, 2017, Gazprom started construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. The project involves the construction of two threads with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters each. The first line is intended for gas supplies to Turkish consumers; the second, for gas supply to the countries of South and South-Eastern Europe. The first gas supplies are planned for the end of 2019. Gazprom is considering options for the continuation of the Turkish Stream through Bulgaria and Serbia, or through Greece and Italy.

Dimitri Dolaberidze