OREANDA-NEWS. A working meeting between Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, took place today.

Alexey Miller briefed Vladimir Putin on the readiness of Russia’s Unified Gas Supply System for operation in the 2016–2017 autumn/winter period, focusing on reserves accumulation in underground gas storage facilities.

The meeting also touched upon the prospects of the TurkStream project.

Shorthand record

Vladimir Putin: Just recently, an agreement was signed in Turkey, which is highly important for the Company. How do you assess its prospects?

Alexey Miller: The Intergovernmental Agreement provides for the construction of two offshore strings across the Black Sea to Turkey, with the capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas. Both strings are scheduled for completion by late 2019.

As you know, Mr. Putin, as a result of our preparatory work we have already, even before the end of 2016, built in Russia the entire gas transmission infrastructure needed for feeding gas into the offshore gas pipeline.

Besides, our Turkish colleagues have confirmed all the permits and documents that were developed for building South Stream within the Turkish economic zone. The Turkish authorities have confirmed that all those permits are valid for TurkStream as well.

We have already received a survey permit for the pipeline section within the Turkish economic zone in the Black Sea, covering 250 kilometers from the border between the Turkish and Bulgarian economic zones toward Turkey.

All this allows us to say with confidence that both strings will be built as scheduled before the end of 2019. As you know, the first string with the capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas is intended for Turkish consumers, while the second string will deliver gas to the European market. Accordingly, it is planned to create a transit infrastructure across Turkey toward European countries.

Vladimir Putin: Very good.