Putin to visit construction of Turkish Stream gas pipeline
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a business trip to Krasnodar Krai. As reported by the Kremlin’s press service, in Anapa the head of state will inspect the work which is underway on the laying of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.
“The President will observe the joining of the shallow and the deep-water parts of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline from on board the pipe-laying vessel the ‘Pioneering Spirit’,” the Kremlin noted.
The Pioneering Spirit is the largest construction vessel in the world, equipped with six facilities for welding and coating pipes. It will undertake the construction of the deep-water parts of the Turkish Stream. In a day, the ship is capable of installing 3.5 to 5 km of the gas pipeline which will have a total length of 937 km.
On May 7, Gazprom began constructing the sea portion of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline on the Russian coast of the Black Sea. During the first stage, the shallow-water portion of the laying was carried out by the Audacia vessel. The same vessel was also used to pull the pipe from the coast through micro-tunnels.
Both the Pioneering Spirit and the Audacia belong to the company Allseas, a contractor in the construction of both lines of the pipeline’s sea portion. The relevant contract between Allseas and Gazprom was signed in February this year.
On October 10, 2016, Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement regarding the Turkish Stream project, which proposes the construction of a gas pipeline through the Black Sea to the European portion of Turkey and further towards the border with Greece. The sea section of the gas pipeline will be realized by the company South Stream Transport B.V., a subsidiary of Gazprom.
In December 2016, Gazprom signed a contract with Allseas Group to construct the first line of the sea portion of the Turkish Stream. In February this year, South Stream Transport B.V. made a contract with Allseas Group to construct the second line of the pipeline’s sea portion.
The first line will be intended for the Turkish market, the second for the gas supply of countries in Southern and South-Eastern Europe. The annual capacity of each line is 15.75 billion cubic meters. There are plans to transport 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The total cost of the project was previously assessed at €11.4 billion. Gazprom’s investment in this project in 2017 amounts to 41.92 billion rubles (€630 million).