WSJ: EU Energy Chief Plays Down Practicality of Proposed Russia-Turkey Pipeline

Russian plans to build a new pipeline through Turkey and bypass Ukraine as a transit country for shipping gas to the European Union won’t work, the EU’s energy chief said on Thursday.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Maros Sefcovic said the capacity foreseen for the project, some 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, surpasses demand from potential customers, including Turkey and South Eastern Europe.

“A first assessment is that this would not work,” Mr. Sefcovic said. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in December that Moscow was dropping plans to build a big pipeline, known as South Stream, through the Black Sea to Bulgaria due to disagreements with the EU over control of the project.
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