Gazprom has almost halved the planned capacity of its TurkStream gas pipeline project from 63 to 32bn m³, its CEO Alexei Miller announced today. The company will now use its second pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany – Nord Stream 2 – to make up the shortfall.
Both pipelines have been designed to enable Gazprom to supply Russian gas Germany and the rest of Europe without using Ukraine as a transit country, with the TurkStream project only surfacing last year after the EU effectively blocked the South Stream route through Bulgaria.
Gazprom’s change of heart comes after a number of major European oil and gas companies put together a consortium to build Nord Stream 2 at the same time as negotiation over TurkStream began to falter, partly over price and partly because Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been forced to call snap elections in November before he will have the mandate to sign off on the deal.
There is no suggestion as yet that tensions between Ankara and Moscow over this week’s incursions by Russian fighter jets into Turkish air space has played any part in the decision.
Gazprom halves Turk Stream capacity for Nord Stream 2
Source: The Moscow Times