OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2010. The Gazprom Headquarters hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Mehmet Konuk, acting Director General of Turkey’s Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation.

The parties discussed the results of cooperation in 2009 and determined the main areas of joint activities for 2010. Alexey Miller and Mehmet Konuk addressed the issues related to developing bilateral cooperation in the energy sector and noted that Russian natural gas supplies to Turkey were steadily increasing and had a considerable growth potential. In particular, according to recent data, Turkey has become the world’s second largest Russian gas purchaser after Germany.
Background

Cooperation in the gas sector between Russia and Turkey commenced in 1984 when the Governments of the Turkish Republic and the USSR singed the Agreement on natural gas supply to Turkey.

According to preliminary data, in 2009 Gazprom exported 19.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey via two transmission routes: the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline and the Blue Stream gas pipeline. Turkey is the world’s second largest Russian gas purchaser after Germany.

The Blue Stream gas pipeline supplements the existing gas transmission corridor running from Russia to Turkey through Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania and Bulgaria. The Blue Stream significantly enhances the reliability of gas supply to Turkey and creates additional preconditions for the gas market and infrastructure development in this country.