“I can confirm that laying of the first pipe will be completed before the end of 2016,” he said.

The Spokesperson also confirmed the information that the Italian Saipem’s Castoro Sei pipe-laying vessel had set sail to the Russian part of the Black Sea last week, to prepare for offshore pipe laying.

Another Saipem’s pipe-laying vessel which will take part in the pipeline construction - The Saipem 7000 - is still at the port of Burgas, he said.

Saipem was contracted by subsidiary of the Russian Gazprom -South Stream Transport B.V. for the construction of the first line of the South Stream Offshore Pipeline, from Russia to Bulgaria across the Black Sea, for a total value of approximately € 2 billion.

However in December 2014 the project was abandoned and the contract was delayed. The project has changed its route and had been renamed to the Turkish Stream so far, but Saipem will work on a project within the same contract.

“Works will be performed under existing contracts which were in place for the now-canceled South Stream Offshore Pipeline,” Jansen said.

Saipem would construct the first line of the pipeline, at depths of up to 2,200 meters within the contract.

In December 2014, Russia terminated its South Stream project, which was planned to pass in the Black Sea and through Bulgaria and deliver gas to the Balkan republics, as well as Hungary, Austria and Italy.

This cancellation made way for a new project, dubbed the Turkish Stream pipeline. The new pipeline will pass through Turkey, with a gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border for further distribution to consumers in southern Europe.

The offshore pipeline of the Turkish Stream will consist of four parallel pipelines running through the Black Sea. The pipelines will enter the water near Anapa, on the Russian coast, and come ashore on the Turkish coast some 100 kilometres west of Istanbul, near the village of Kiyikoy.

From Kiyikoy, an underground pipeline will be developed connecting TurkStream to the existing network at Luleburgaz. The route will reach Turkish town of Ipsala as a final point.

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