Ahead of the opening ceremony to bring together Turkish and Russian presidents for the launch of the TurkStream Pipeline on Jan. 8, 2020, the countdown for the operation phase of the project started with the final touches being made for the project.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, TurkStream spokeswoman Asli Esen said they would be ready to start the gas flow by the end of the year, as per the original project timeline. Due to deliver natural gas from Russia to Turkey and Europe, the TurkStream project starts from Anapa in Russia and stretches through the Black Sea to the Turkish town of Kiyikoy. Esen noted that the landfall facilities in Russia and the offshore lines are fully complete.
"We have passed at 99% completion threshold at the Kiyikoy receiving terminal and have started the commissioning process, which means that the project is being transitioned from construction to operation. Anapa, offshore and Kiyikoy sections are all connected to one another and filled with gas as we speak,” she said. The project has progressed very rapidly since the signing of the Intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkey in October 2018, she recounted.
"TurkStream in fact is a very challenging project from a technological perspective. Two offshore pipelines, a total of 1,870 kilometers in length, were laid at depths reaching 2,200 meters, making TurkStream the biggest pipeline laid at this depth under the sea.
"The fast and safe implementation of such a hard project was possible owing to the expertise of more than 6,000 employees and contractors worldwide. Obviously the technology brought along by the Pioneering Spirit, the world’s biggest construction vessel, also played its part,” she said.
The offshore construction involved the welding of 153,000 pipe joints, each with a wall thickness of 39 millimeters, a diameter of 81.3 centimeters and a length of 12.2 meters. "The total supply capacity of the two lines of TurkStream is 31.5 billion cubic meters, corresponding to the annual energy demand of 15 million homes. We carried out this massive project with the highest environmental and social sensitivity and responsibility, carrying out impact mitigation, compensation and community investment programs in both Russia and Turkey,” Esen said.
Two onshore lines will carry gas from the receiving terminal inwards. The first, to connect to Turkey’s existing gas grid, is built by BOTAS, and the second, to stretch to the Turkish-European border in the Thrace region, will be operated by a Gazprom-BOTAS joint venture.
(Anadolu Agency)
