Blue Stream Gas Pipeline To Fully Meet Turkey's Gas Needs

The Blue Stream gas pipeline will make it possible to fully meet Turkey's natural gas demands. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told this to journalists upon his arrival in Krasnodar on Wednesday. He intends to inspect the construction of the first section of the gas pipeline. Mikhail Kasyanov underscored that Russian gas accounts for 80 percent of the gas consumed by Turkey. As a whole, according to the Russian Prime Minister, Moscow is very interested in developing cooperation in energy resources deliveries to Turkey and also to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe. According to him, in February-March next year, the pipes will be laid on the bottom of the Black Sea and the construction of the unique compressor station will be finished. In the third decade of the next year the first consignment of gas will be delivered to Turkey. With the pipeline's annual design output of 16 billion cubic metres of gas, in 2002 Turkey will presumably receive two billion cubic metres, and in 2003 - four billion cubic metres. Mikhail Kasyanov regards the construction of the Blue Stream gas pipeline as a unique project in terms of technology, the time frame and the amount of investments - 2.5 billion dollars.