OREANDA-NEWS. Moscow hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Taner Yildiz, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey.

The meeting addressed the issues of strategic partnership, in particular, the prospects for cooperation deepening in natural gas supplies from Russia to Turkey. The parties noted that Turkey was among top consumers of Russian 'blue fuel' for many years and Russia, in its turn, was a reliable provider of natural gas for the Turkish economy, thus covering nearly 60 per cent of the country's total consumption.

The Blue Stream gas pipeline is important for ensuring stable gas supplies to Turkey. For instance, around 110 billion cubic meters of gas have been conveyed via Blue Stream since the start of commercial gas deliveries. The meeting participants stressed that Russian gas exports via that route were gradually increasing, and this upward trend could continue. In this regard, the parties confirmed their mutual intention to expand Blue Stream's capacity by 3 billion cubic meters.

Turkey is Gazprom's second largest sales market behind Germany. In 2013 Gazprom supplied Turkey with 26.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Russian natural gas is supplied to Turkey via the Blue Stream and the Trans-Balkan gas pipelines.

Running under the Black Sea, the Blue Stream gas pipeline secures annual direct supplies of some 16 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Turkish consumers, starting from 2003.

The cooperation in the gas sector between Russia and Turkey commenced in 1984 when the USSR and the Republic of Turkey signed the Agreement on natural gas supply to Turkey.