The operation of the offshore gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey Blue Stream has been suspended since July 1 for the planned technical maintenance till the end of the week, a source from Gasprom told ITAR-TACC.
1213-km-long Blue Stream gas pipeline with the capacity of 16 billion cub.m. of gas a year was launched in December 2002 for direct deliveries of gas to the Turkish consumers via the Black Sea bottom.
Turkey is the second biggest importer of Russian gas after Germany. In 2013 26.62 billion cub.m. of gas was delivered to Turkey by two routes (ground route and Blue Stream).
At present Gasprom and the Turkish government have been discussing the increase in the Blue Stream gas pipeline capacity from 16 to 19 billion cub.m. a year.