Gasprom and the Turkish government have agreed to increase capacity of the Blue Stream gas pipeline by 3 billion cub.m. up to 19 billion cub.m. a year, Reuters reported quoting the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz.
When carrying capacity of the Blue Stream is increased, the Turkish authorities plan to secure the country’s economy from possible suspension of deliveries via then ground gas pipeline passing through Ukraine. At present Turkey receives about 12.5% of needed gas from this direction.
The issue of concluding of a new gas contract, in particular purchase of fuel at a reasonable price for the private sector, could be brought up during today’s talks. Yildiz said that the contracts give Turkey the right to revise gas prices.
The capacity of the Blue Stream gas pipeline, which was built over 10 years ago, is 16 billion cub.m. a year, but the real volume of deliveries is below the norm. In 2006 7.5 billion cub.m. of gas was delivered to Turkey via the Blue Stream , in 2007 – 9.5 billion cub .m., in 2008 – 10.1 billion cub.m., in 2009 – 9.8 billion cub.m., in 2010 – 8.1 billion cub.m., in 2011 – 14 billion cub.m., in 2012 – 14.7 billion cub.m. and in 2013 – 13.7 billion cub.m.
On March 11, 2014 a total of 100 billion cub.m. of gas has been shipped to Turkey via the Blue Stream.
During some periods the daily volume delivered via the gas pipeline corresponds to the planned capacity. The reason is that Iran fails to fulfill its obligations and Gasprom compensates incomplete deliveries.
Turkey is the second biggest market of Gasprom in Europe after Germany. The Russian gas export to Turkey via the Blue Stream is based on the contract between Gasprom and the Turkish Botas firm, which envisages delivery of 365 billion cub.m. of gas within 25 years.
1213-km-long Blue Stream gas pipeline is designed to transport Russian natural gas to Turkey via the Black Sea bypassing the third countries. The sea section of the gas pipeline lies on the depth of 2150 meters in the aggressive hydrosulfide environment. Construction of 396-km-long offshore section of the Blue Stream started in September 2001 and was completed in May 2002. The commercial gas deliveries via the gas pipeline started in February 2003, reported RBC.
