“My guess it that it will take several more years before we see the first line built,” Stern told Trend by email on July 29.
The expert believes that both Turkey and Russia are really interested in the Turkish Stream project. They do not need the project now, but by the early 2020s Turkey may need it, he said.
The Turkish Stream project was frozen in late 2015 due to sharp deterioration of relations between Moscow and Ankara when Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber with two pilots on board. On June 27, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter of condolences to Putin over the death of Russian Su-24 pilot and expressed regret over the incident. After that, the two countries’ relations began to improve.
Russia and Turkey have announced the resumption of negotiations on the Turkish Stream this week and the intention to create a working group on this project.
Initially Russia planned to build four lines of the Turkish Stream with 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas capacity each. The first line was planned for gas supplies to Turkish market. Three other lines had to bring Russian gas to the Turkish-Greek border for subsequent supplies to the EU.
Turkish Stream gas pipeline has good prospects for implementation
30 July 2016
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The prospects of implementation of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project are quite good, but they unlikely are immediate, Professor Jonathan Stern, Chairman and Senior Research Fellow for Natural Gas Research Programme in the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies believes.
