The Energy Exchange | 27‐29 January, Vienna, Austria
8th European Gas Conference | John Roberts |
Session Facilitator: John Roberts, Energy Security Specialist, Methinks Ltd. Roberts introduced the session by saying that Russia was serious about “Turkish Stream” and that he considered it most probable that the first two strings of this proposed four‐string, 63‐bcm/y system would be built. He noted the fact that Turkish Stream could still utilise three‐quarters of South Stream’s original 930‐km offshore route from the Russkaya Compressor station near Anapa on Russia’s Black Sea coast to South Stream’s planned landfall near Varna in Bulgaria. He then highlighted the fact that Turkish Stream was the inheritor of a series of contracts signed in 2014 by the Gazprom‐led (and Amsterdam‐registered) South Stream Transport company. These comprised:
- Contracts worth €1bn contracts awarded in January 2014 for actual pipes for the initial 15.75 bcm/y string;
- Contracts worth €800m awarded in March 2014 for pipe required for the second string;
- Contracts worth €2bn awarded in March 2014 to Italy’s Saipem to lay the first string;
- Contracts for an unspecified amount, but presumed to be worth at least $1.2 bn, awarded in April 2014 to the Swiss company Allseas to lay 900‐kms of the second string and for Saipem to carry out complementary works on the second string.
The pipe contracts have already led to an accumulation of pipe in Bulgaria. Roberts, citing recent discussions he had held with Russian Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov, confirmed that Gazprom was planning a landfall in Turkish Thrace; that the first string would be laid this year; that a pipeline of roughly 200‐kms would be laid across Thrace to the Greek border; and that throughput from the first string would be targeted at serving the Istanbul area. Thus far, he added, Gazprom has signalled no intention of using the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), which will traverse Turkey as part of the Southern Gas Corridor project.
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