Russian gas giant Gazprom has recently announced a memorandum of understanding with Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation on the construction of an offshore gas pipeline across the Black Sea towards Turkey.
Gazprom chairman, Alexey Miller and Botas chairman, Mehmet Konuk, signed the MoU in Turkey's capital city, Ankara. The MoU was signed in the presence of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation and Recep Erdogan, President of the Republic of Turkey.
The new gas pipeline will have a capacity of 63 billion cubic metres, with 14 billion cubic metres earmarked for Turkish consumers (an identical amount is currently being supplied via the Balkan Corridor) and nearly 50 billion cubic metres to be carried to the Turkey/Greece border, where a delivery point will be arranged.
The Russkaya compressor station, currently under construction in Russia's Black Sea-situated Krasnodar Territory, will serve as the pipeline's starting point.
Turkey is currently Gazprom's second largest sales market behind Germany. In 2013, Gazprom supplied Turkey with 26.7 billion cubic metres of natural gas. Turkey currently receives natural gas via the Blue Stream and the Trans-Balkan gas pipelines.
