Gazprom, Botas Sign TurkStream Protocol
Russia’s Gazprom said May 26 it has signed a protocol with Turkish government on the overland section of the transit line of the TurkStream gas pipeline.
Gazprom and Botas have entered into an agreement on the basic conditions and parameters for the construction of this section. The construction of the overland section will be carried out by an equal joint venture company TurkAkim Gaz Tasima, Gazprom said.
Also, Gazprom Export and Botas have agreed to go in for an out of court settlement of the current arbitration under the terms of contracts for the supply of Russian natural gas to Turkish consumers. The arbitration proceedings will be terminated in the near future, Gazprom stated without giving any details. Botas had taken Gazprom to international arbitration claiming it was not offered the promised price discount on imports of Russian gas.
The capacity of the first and second lines of TurkStream will each have 15.75bn m³/yr capacity. Gazprom said the first is intended to replace the 14bn m³/yr TransBalkan line which runs from Ukraine south through Romania and Bulgaria. Gazprom already supplies gas directly to Turkey through Blue Stream, a 16bn m³/yr line co-owned with Italian firm Eni, which follows a different route under the Black Sea and which was completed in 2002.
Gazprom meets Edison too
Separately on May 25, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller met Edison CEO Marc Benayoun, who is also an executive vice president of Edison's majority owner French power group EDF, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (Spief) at which they reviewed the implementation of their trilateral cooperation agreement, signed June 2 2017 also with Greek gas firm Depa, regarding TurkStream. Not much further detail was provided and Edison itself issued no statement. The trio first signed a memo of understanding about TurkStream in early 2016.
Gazprom issued no fewer than 18 statements on May 25 in connection with its meetings with foreign firms at Spief, mostly minor ones, including with Shell CEO Ben van Beurden to continue a feasibility study on the Baltic LNG project, with Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne about joint Bolivian upstream gas developments, Hungary's trade minister Peter Szijjarto on extending gas trade, with the Dutch gas transmission operator Gasunie and separately its Belgian counterpart Fluxys on the potential for increased Russian exports through their systems via Nord Stream 2 (a project in which neither is an equity participant, although Gasunie has a 9% stake in Nord Stream 1 pipeline). Russian firms are keen to promote foreign visitors to Spief: Rosneft also issued 18 statements on May 25 mostly on minor matters.