EU failed to discuss Russia’s gas turn to Turkey in place of South Stream - Juncker

BRUSSELS, February 13. /TASS/. Russia’s decision to scrap its South Stream gas pipeline project and the subsequent move to extend a new gas route to Turkey instead was raised at an extraordinary summit of the European Union on Thursday night, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said. Juncker said, however, that although the issue of the Russian natural gas deliveries via the abandoned South Stream pipeline project was raised at the summit, the participants failed to discuss subject. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on December 1, 2014 that the project to build the South Stream gas pipeline was closed due to the European Union’s unconstructive approach to cooperation in that sphere, including Bulgaria’s decision to stop the construction of the pipeline’s stretch on its territory. Instead, Russia will build a gas pipeline to Turkey where a gas hub on the border with Europe will be created, Putin said. The Turkish Stream gas pipe’s four lines will have a total capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. The new gas pipeline will run 660 km (410 miles) along the old corridor of the South Stream project abandoned by Russia and 250 km (155 miles) in the new corridor towards Turkey’s European part. Russian energy giant Gazprom and Turkey’s Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding on December 1, 2014, envisaging the construction of the gas pipeline across the Black Sea to Turkey. The Turkish Stream gas pipeline will have a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, of which 50 billion cubic meters will be supplied to a new gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border. The South Stream was Gazprom's global infrastructure project designed to build a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe in order to diversify natural gas export routes and eliminate transit risks. The pipeline’s overland part was expected to run across Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria with a gas metering station at Tarvisio, Italy, as its terminus. Moreover, the South Stream project envisaged the pipeline’s offshoots to Croatia and the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its capacity was estimated at 16 billion euros and the first gas deliveries were expected to start in late 2015. The construction of the Bulgarian stretch of the project was launched on October 31, 2013. However, the European Commission later started an anti-monopoly probe into the South Stream project, saying it contradicted the norms of the Third Energy Package. Read more