TurkStream Subsea Lines Half-Way Done
The subsea section of the two TurkStream gas pipelines are now half complete, Russian export monopoly Gazprom said March 6. Two strings that add up to over 930 km now lie on the Black Sea bed, said South Stream, the wholly-owned subsdiary. “Pioneering Spirit, the vessel responsible for the deep-water sections of the pipeline, passed km point 706 this morning for the first line.”
Of the second line, 224 km were installed in 2017; and the Russian state-owned operator has approval from Turkey to continue works. The TurkStream offshore gas pipeline consists of two parallel strings each of 15.75bn m³/yr. In line with the schedule, first gas is expected to flow through TurkStream by the end of 2019.
“TurkStream will be the first pipeline of its size to be installed at a water depth of up to 2,200 metres. One of the pipelines will cater for the Turkish market, while the other will stretch to the Turkish-European border to ensure reliable deliveries of Russian gas to south and south-east Europe,” the report said. Previously the deepest line had been Blue Stream, crossing the Black Sea from north to south, rather than north east to southwest.
Gazprom announced February that it has increased its estimated budget for the TurkStream from initial $6bn to $7bn. It plans to invest $3.2bn this year, about double last year.
Novak: TS, NS2 pipelines accelerating works
Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak said at an interview with Russia-24 business news television channel March 6 that “we must speed up the construction of the Nord Stream 2 (for transiting 55bn m³/yr directly to Germany, expected to complete next year) and TurkStream gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine in order to remove transit risks when delivering Russian gas to Europe.” This will also lower costs for end users, he said.
Gazprom has said it will unwind its transit contract with Ukraine, following the Stockholm arbitration judgement which CEO Alexei Miller described as favouring Ukraine over Russia.
Gazprom has allocated $2.01bn to NS2 in 2018, 11.2% more than last year. The final route of NS2 has not been decided as Denmark has yet to give Gazprom permission for NS2 to follow NS1 through its waters. A longer route means it will be unlikely to make 2019 for first sales gas.