OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2009. Led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee a Gazprom delegation today paid a working visit to Turkey.

As part of the visit a meeting was held with Mehmet Hilmi Guler, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister. The parties discussed the prospects for the bilateral cooperation deepening with regard to Russian gas deliveries to Turkey.

Alexey Miller and Mehmet Hilmi Guler considered possibilities to promote the interaction between Gazprom and Turkish companies for the purpose of developing the gas transportation infrastructure. The discussion centered on the Blue Stream-2 project stipulating the construction of a new gas line running in parallel with the Blue Stream, a gas transmission infrastructure in Turkey and, later on, a submerged gas pipeline to Israel. The both sides agreed that the provisional techno-economic assessments proved the project’s technical feasibility and economic viability. Once a new Israeli Government is formed, the negotiations on Russian gas supply to this country will be resumed. The Turkish side, on its part, expressed its interest in provisioning of additional capacities of the Blue Stream-2 in order to supply gas to the Turkish market. From 2015 Turkey will need extra supplies of Russian gas.

The meeting discussed oil and power generation projects. In the near future these projects will be further developed by the working groups.

The meeting participants noted the importance of securing reliable and uninterrupted gas exports from Russia and highly evaluated the contribution of the Blue Stream gas pipeline to the reinforcement of Turkey’s energy security.

The Turkish side also expressed its gratitude to Gazprom for repeatedly and swiftly meeting Turkey’s requests for extra gas supplies.