Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev said Ukraine may lose 15 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas out of the 70 bcm being transported through its territory following the construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline to be carried out by Russia.
The project aims at enabling gas transit across the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine.
”The implementation of this project will have adverse consequences for Ukraine. Although not as significant as the Nord Stream, but 15 bcm of gas transit loss out of the current volume of 70 bcm is a very large amount,” Kobolev stated in an interview to a Ukrainian TV channel.
The Naftogaz CEO also pointed to difficulties associated with the implementation of the Turkish Stream project due to complex and unstable political relations between Russia and Turkey, but stressed that the Russian side had already procured all the pipes to begin construction.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the agreement to build the pipeline within the Turkish Stream project was reached in December 2014. According to the initial plan, the capacity of four lines under the pipeline project would amount to 63 bcm of gas per year, with 16 billion to be supplied to Turkey and 47 billion to the gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border.
However, the project was suspended following the deteriorating relations between Moscow and Ankara in the aftermath of the downing of a Russian Su-24 aircraft by Turkey in November 2015.
On July 26, 2016, Ankara expressed readiness to begin constructing the first line of the Turkish Stream.
Turkey`s Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci stated that ”political decisions are in place to settle the issue of further implementation of the project.” According to Zeybekci, the issue is now being negotiated with the Russian side.
On August 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the construction of the first part of the Turkish Stream pipeline, bypassing Ukraine, to fulfill Turkish requirements could begin ”in the near future” and the construction of the second part for carrying out gas supplies to the European Union would be negotiated with the European Commission.
