Pipe-laying for TurkStream took 15 months and was completed ahead of schedule, Gazprom underlined. The interconnector is “unique from a technological standpoint,” it stressed given that for the first time ever, a pipeline of 813 millimeters in diameter was laid at a depth of 2,200 meters.
The starting point of TurkStream is the Russkaya compressor station near the twon of Anapa. With 224 MW capacity, it maintains the pressure required for transmitting gas along the pipeline's two strings through more than 930 kilometers up to the Turkish coast where gas enters the receiving terminal near the city of Kiyikoy.
“The launch of TurkStream is a history-making event. Taking into account exports via Blue Stream, we have paved the way for direct transit-free supplies to fully meet Turkey's needs for Gazprom's gas. Europe now has a new and reliable route to receive Russian pipeline gas,” said the chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Alexey Miller said at the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
“Thanks to all of this, our cooperation with our Turkish and European partners is shifting to a new level,” he said, suggesting “[it] is going to help improve energy security in the region.”