Gazprom Inks 2nd TurkStream Contract

Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom and Swiss contractor Allseas Group signed February 20 a contract to build the second string of the TurkStream gas pipeline project’s Black Sea section. The document was signed as part of the option included in the construction contract for the pipeline’s first string, signed last December.

In a similar fashion to the construction of TurkStream’s first string, Allseas plans to use Pioneering Spirit, the world’s largest construction vessel, to lay more than 900 km of pipes across the seabed for the second string of the pipeline, Gazprom said. The vessel was used last summer to decommission the Yme topsides offshore Norway.

TurkStream is the project for the construction of a transit-free export gas pipeline stretching across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further to Turkey’s border with neighbouring countries. 

The first string of the gas pipeline is intended for Turkish consumers, while the second string will deliver gas to southern and southeastern Europe. Each string of TurkStream will have the throughput capacity of 15.75bn m³/year.

Proposed route of TurkStream

(Credit: Gazprom)

Gazprom already supplies gas under the Black Sea to Turkey, through the 16bn m³/yr Blue Stream which opened 14 years ago, which starts and ends in different places from the projected route of TurkStream. That was its first export route to avoid Ukraine as a transit country.

William Powell