Gazprom, Botas Map Out Turkish Stream Route

Gazprom's CEO Alexey Miller and Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz have discussed the details over the launch of Turkish Stream.

''We have identified and put on the map also the on-ground passage of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline for further exploration and projecting," Miller said, as quoted by TASS information agency.

The official collaboration memorandum between the two countries is expected to be signed in the second part of 2015.

Gazprom and the Turkish Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation will be partners in the project as announced on January 27. The sea-borne section will be constructed independently by Alexey Miller's company. Turkish Stream is expected to aggregate an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, with 15.75 billion cubic meters allocated exclusively to Bulgaria's southern neighbor.

Turkish Stream was initiated after an announcement was made by Russian President Vladmir Putin in December 2014 regarding the cancellation of the South Stream project. The former route included Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria and was estimated at EUR 16 B. Deliveries were projected to start in late 2015.

Russian President Putin pointed out that one of the key reasons for the decision has been the European Commission's ''Third Energy Package'', stating that ''no single company control the full process of extraction, transportation and sale of energy.''

Several Bulgarian government official stated that no official cancellation statement has been received over the past one month.

Meanwhile, The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) has ranked Bulgaria as a leader on energy diversification on account of the stopped South Stream project.

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