“Get out now or risk the consequences,” he said when announcing the U.S. Department of State was updating public guidance for the ‘Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)’ authorities to include these projects.
“Aiding and abetting Russia’s malign influence projects will not be tolerated,” he said, brand-marking both TurkStream and NordStream as “the Kremlin's key tools to exploit and expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies.”
Botas and Gazprom, meanwhile, are trying to calmly continue with works on the second leg of the controversial TurkStream pipeline. The Russia-Turkey interconnector through the Black Sea consists of two 930-kilometer offshore lines through the Black Sea as well as two separate onshore lines that are 142 and 70 kilometers long and extend to Greece and Bulgaria.
First leg of TurkStream in operation since January
Commercial deliveries of natural gas via TurkStream to Greece via the first 15.75 billion cubic meter per year (Bcm/y) pipeline leg have commenced on January 8, 2020.
Pipe-laying for the first leg from the Russian town of Anapa to Kiyikoy in northern Greece took 15 months and was completed ahead of schedule. Construction of the pipeline’s offshore section is carried out by Allseas Group -- the same Swiss pipe-laying firm that had been involved in the controversial Nord Stream-2 project.
Gazprom underlined the TurkStream interconnector is “unique from a technological standpoint,” given it is the first project whereby a pipeline of 813 millimeters in diameter has been laid at a depth of 2,200 meters.
Bulgaria still needs to build landfall for TurkStream-2
Now, works are progressing on building a second 15.75 Bcm y line, designated to carry Russian gas to Bulgaria. Combined, the two legs of TurkStream will have an annual capacity of 31.5 Bcm/y.
However, works in Bulgaria have suffered some setbacks that prompted Gazprom to accuse the government in Sofia of delaying the construction of the pipeline landfall on its territory.
In January, Gazprom stated it had supplied its first billion cubic meters of gas via the TurkStream gas pipeline. CEO Alexey Miller said TurkStream fully covered all contractual deliveries to consumers in Bulgaria, Greece, and North Macedonia. While some 54% of supplies went to the Turkish gas market, the remaining 46% were carried onwards to the border with Greece and Bulgaria.
Turkey is Gazprom's second largest export market, with Russian gas currently being delivered to Turkey via the Blue Stream gas pipeline and the Transbalkan Corridor. Supplies through the 31.5 Bcf/y TurkStream dual pipeline will both enhance the volumes of Russian gas supply to Turkey as well as to the wider region of south-eastern Europe.
