ZCZC
BCN-27
RUSSIA-TURKEY-ECONOMY-GAS
TurkStream pipeline nearly complete: Gazprom
MOSCOW, Aug 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The TurkStream pipeline, due to supply
Russian gas to Turkey via the Black Sea from next year, is already 80 percent
complete, the CEO of the Russian gas giant Gazprom said Thursday.
“The realisation of large-scale Gazprom export projects to Europe are
continuing,” CEO Alexei Miller said in comments carried by Russian news
agencies.
“There is the Turkish Stream gas pipeline: 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) of
pipe, around 80 percent of the line” has been assembled, he said during a
meeting.
Over the first eight months of the year, Gazprom exported over 133 billion
cubic metres of gas to Turkey and the EU — up 5.6 percent on the same period
of the previous year, Miller said.
The Russian giant continues to announce record export volumes to the
region, where it generates a sizeable portion of its profits.
On Wednesday, Gazprom announced an increase of 65 percent to its net
profits in the first half of 2018, to 630.8 billion rubles ($9.2 billion, 7.9
billion euros).
Gazprom operating profits leapt 55 percent to 878.2 billion rubles, while
its turnover was up 24 percent to 3.97 billion rubles.
Putin announced the plan to build TurkStream in Ankara in December 2014,
as a replacement for the South Stream pipeline that was to have been built in
cooperation with EU countries.
South Stream was scrapped after years of planning, with Putin angrily
blaming Brussels for its failure.
Gazprom is also planning to open the Nord Stream 2 pipeline by the end of
next year, bypassing Ukraine by the Baltic Sea.
BSS/AFP/HR/1010