Russia Starts Filling TurkStream

Russian gas has begun flowing into the first string of the TurkStream pipeline to Turkey ahead of its launch later this year, its operator South Stream Transport said in a statement on October 18.

Filling the pipeline marks the final stage of testing before supplies start, said the Gazprom subsidiary.

TurkStream involves the construction two 15.75bn m³/yr pipelines under the Black Sea making landfall in Turkey’s western Thrace region. The first, due online by the end of this year, will supply Turkey, while the second will be routed through Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary and is expected to start up sometime in 2020. Swiss-based Allseas broke ground on the pipeline in May 2017. 

Gazprom has also just begun filling the 38bn m³/yr Power of Siberia pipeline with gas. That gas will come from fields in eastern Siberia: Kovykta and Chayandinskoe and flows will ramp up slowly starting later this year.