TurkStream

and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of TurkStream pipeline in Istanbul on 19 November 2018 The first direct gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey under the Black Sea was Blue Stream, which was commissioned in 2005. In 2009, Russia′s prime minister Vladimir Putin proposed the Blue Stream II line parallel to the original pipeline. The Blue Stream II project never took off and the South Stream project took the lead, until it was abandoned in 2014. The TurkStream (then named Turkish Stream) project was announced by Russia′s president Vladimir Putin on 1 December 2014 during his state visit to Turkey, when a memorandum of understanding was signed between Gazprom and BOTAŞ. A permit to conduct engineering surveys for the Turkish offshore section was granted in July 2015. Also in July 2015, a memorandum of understanding between Greece and Russia was signed for the construction and operation of the TurkStream section in the Greek territory. In late July 2016, following a reconciliation meeting in Moscow, both sides brought the project back to the table. On 10 October 2016, Russia and Turkey officially signed the intergovernmental agreement in Istanbul to execute the project. A contract with an offshore contractor Allseas for laying the first line was signed on 8 December 2016 and the contract for the second line was signed on 20 February 2017. The ceremony of completing construction of the offshore section was held in Istanbul on 19 November 2018. The offshore section of the pipeline was filled with gas in November 2019. Gazprom began shipping gas via TurkStream, including to Bulgaria and North Macedonia, on 1 January 2020, replacing supplies via the Trans-Balkan pipeline through Ukraine and Romania. The pipeline was inaugurated on 8 January 2020 by presidents Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The TurkStream project replaced the South Stream project that was cancelled in 2014. On 13 January 2025, the Russian defence ministry reported a failed Ukrainian drone attack on a TurkStream compressor station in the Krasnodar region, which Russia called an "act of energy terrorism". The attack happened after Ukraine refused to renew a five-year transit contract for Russian gas through Ukraine. ==Technical features==

The pipeline is estimated to cost €11.4 billion. The first line supplies Turkey and the second line allows the transport of natural gas further, to South East and Central Europe. Both lines are using pipes with an outer diameter of , manufactured by Europipe GmbH of Germany, Vyksa Steel Works of OMK and Izhora Pipe Mill of Severstal of Russia, and a consortium of Marubeni, Itochu and Sumitomo of Japan. Pipes have a wall thickness of and a concrete coating of . The internal pressure of the pipeline is . The pipeline is installed in water depths up to . ==Route==

pipelines connect Russia and Turkey under the Black Sea TurkStream begins at the Russkaya compressor station near Anapa. The further extension of the pipeline in South-East and Central European countries are responsibilities of involved countries. For the gas transport both existing infrastructure and construction of new pipelines will be used. For Gazprom the preferable option is to export gas from the second line to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria. The route in Bulgaria starts on the Bulgaria–Turkey borders and runs by a reverse mode to the compressor station in Provadia, north-east of Bulgaria. From there, a new pipeline will run to the Bulgaria–Serbia border. New compressor stations will be built in Provadia and Rasovo. A connecting branch from Belgrade to Bosnia and Herzegovina is planned. The Hungarian section will be only long. The other planned follow-on projects included also the Tesla pipeline, to run from Greece to North Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary, ending at the Baumgarten gas hub in Austria. ==Contractors==

The project was implemented by South Stream Transport B.V., a subsidiary of Gazprom, which was originally established for the South Stream project. In the near-shore areas the offshore pipeline was laid by the pipe-laying vessel Audacia. For the deep part of the Black Sea, the pipe-laying vessel Pioneering Spirit was used. The contractor for the Turkish section was Petrofac and the subcontractor for the construction of the receiving terminal in Turkey was Tekfen. Contractor for the onshore section to the Turkey–Bulgaria border was TurkAkim Gaz Tasima A. S. will carry out construction of the land section, a joint venture of Gazprom and BOTAŞ. ==Impact==

TurkStream changes the regional gas flows in South-East Europe by diverting the transit through Ukraine and the Trans Balkan Pipeline system. In 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin planned for Turkey to become an energy hub for all of Europe. According to Aura Săbăduș, a senior energy journalist focusing on the Black Sea region, "Turkey would accumulate gas from various producers – Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, [liquefied natural gas] and its own Black Sea gas – and then whitewash it and relabel it as Turkish. European buyers wouldn't know the origin of the gas." After the cessation of gas transit through Ukraine to Europe at the beginning of 2025, TurkStream will be the only gas pipeline through which Russia can directly supply gas to Europe. By 2023, Russia's gas deliveries via TurkStream have already increased by 23% to 16.7 billion cubic meters. According to Gokhan Yardim, former manager of the state-owned energy company GOTA, this will open up the possibility of a further 15 billion cubic meters of gas transit. On 11 January 2025, Ukraine attacked a TurkStream gas compressor station in Russia with drones. However, the gas transport was not interrupted. In 2024, Slovakia entered into a pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan to reduce the impact of the Ukrainian closure of the pipeline for Russian supplies in 2025. Transfer may be via Russia and TurkStream. == See also ==