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After scuttling South Stream,
Russia plans line
to Turkey instead
Dec. 02, 2014 + + +
Russia has decided against the construction of the 930-km South Stream
natural gas pipeline across the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria, citing
delays on the part of the European Union in taking the steps necessary to
move forward. Press reports have OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller
as confirming the decision originally announced by Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Miller and Mehmet Konuk, chairman of Botas
Petroleum Pipeline Corp., signed a memorandum of understanding Dec. 1 on
instead building an offshore gas pipeline from the Russkaya compressor
station (also South Stream’s starting point) under construction in the
Krasnodar Territory across the Black Sea to Turkey. Putin and Turkish
President Recep Erdogan witnessed the signing.
Turkey in July had
approved South Stream’s environmental impact assessment, including pipelay
for the 63-billion cu m (bcm)/year project’s four parallel strings in its
exclusive economic zone starting first-quarter 2015 (OGJ Online, July 25,
2014).
The new pipeline would have the same 63
bcm/year overall capacity, with 14 bcm/year to be used in Turkey and the
balance shipped to a border crossing with Greece, the location of which
has yet to be decided. The 448-Mw Russkaya station will provide as much as
28.45 MPa of pressure, enough to have shipped gas on South Stream to
Bulgaria without intermediate compression.
Meanwhile, Saipem, a
unit of Italy’s Eni SPA, released a statement saying that it had not yet
received any formal notice of termination of its contract with South
Stream Transport BV. Pipelay for South Stream Line 2 using the Saipem 7000
was due to start in mid-2015, with first gas flow from Line 1 following
later that year (OGJ Online, May 12, 2014).
“Operational
activities therefore continue to progress,” Saipem said, adding, “The
potential interruption of work and any possible cancellation of the
project are subject to the terms of contract.”
Turkey is Gazprom’s
second-largest natural gas sales market behind Germany. Gazprom shipped
26.7 bcm to Turkey last year via the Blue Stream and Trans-Balkan
pipelines.
Source: Christopher E. Smith
Oil & Gas Journal Managing Editor-Technology
chriss@ogjonline.com
www.ogj.com
.
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