A new agreement was signed between the Turkish Botas and the Russian Gazprom. The companies’ executives stated that they have reached an understanding on the key issues of the new pipeline construction project. They have already signed a relevant memorandum. The new pipeline will become an alternative to the now-defunct South Stream and will run under the Black Sea. The capacity of the new pipeline will be 63 billion cubic meters a year, 13-14 billion cubic meters of that will be reserved for Turkey. According to the plan, the overland pass pipeline will run on the Turkish territory and the remaining roughly 50 billion will flow to the hub on the Turkish-Greek border. The European countries will be able to purchase the Russian gas without constructing their own pipelines in Europe. The South Stream is no longer under the construction. Another project will be established and named soon. Aleksandr Medvedev, the Executive Director of Gazprom said, that according to the Turkish side, the project might be called “Turkish Stream.” The construction will be held under the personal control of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. On December 1, Putin announced at the press-conference in Ankara that Russia denies the realization of the South Stream project. Putin stated that Russia cannot continue the implementation of the project due to the fact that the European Commission is blocking the project and, as a result, Bulgaria denied the participation in it. It is well known that Turkey is the second largest trading partner for Gazprom after Germany. The Russian company supplied 26.6 billion cubic meter of gas to Turkey last year. Turkey receives its gas via the Blue Stream pipeline through the Black Sea and the Trans-Balkan pipeline.
