Turkey greenlights Russia's west-bound gas pipeline

MOSCOW (A.A) - December 28, 2011 - Turkey on Wednesday signed an agreement with Russia to allow a Russian natural gas pipeline to pass under Turkish Black Sea waters. The deal for the South Stream -- a proposed pipeline which would bypass Ukraine to transport Russian natural gas to the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further to Greece, Italy and Austria -- was signed in Moscow by Turkey's state-run oil and gas pipelines company and the Russian Gazprom. The penning ceremony was supervised by Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz as well as by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Deputy Premier Igor Sechin. The ceremony also saw the penning of a deal that extends a previous agreement on Turkey's gas import from Russian Western Line until 2025.