100 Billion Milestone for Blue Stream Gas

Tuesday at 11:00 am Moscow time the Blue Stream gas pipeline supplied its 100th billion cubic meter of Russian natural gas to Turkey.

In 2013 gas supplies via Blue Stream had stood at 13.7 billion cubic meters of gas accounting for over a half of the total gas volume (26.7 billion cubic meters) exported by Gazprom to Turkey in 2013.

“For over 11 years Blue Stream has been an illustrative example of the efficiency and reliability of direct Russian gas supplies to European consumers. The project is the first offshore thoroughfare of such scale globally; it represents a great engineering achievement. Blue Stream made it possible to gain a unique experience in constructing and operating offshore gas pipelines, which can be put into practice as part of the Nord Stream and South Stream projects as well as the Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline. Mostly due to Blue Stream, Russia became the undisputed world's leader in terms of constructing cutting-edge gas transmission systems offshore and onshore,” said Alexey Miller, chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.

The 1,213-kilometer Blue Stream gas pipeline with the annual capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas was commissioned in December 2002 in order to directly supply gas to Turkey across the Black Sea. Blue Stream is currently the deepest gas pipeline for Russian natural gas export. The pipeline lies at a depth of up to 2,150 meters on the seabed in an aggressive hydrogen sulfide environment of the Black Sea. The gas pipeline is made of high-grade corrosion-resistant steel pipes with internal and external polymer coatings, intellectual cut-ins at the mountainous and offshore sections. 

In South Stream developments, Gazprom has signed a contract for laying the first string of the project's offshore section and a pipe procurement contract for the second string of the gas pipeline offshore section.

South Stream's offshore section will comprise four parallel strings laid under the Black Sea within a single routing at the depth of more than 2,200 meters. Each string will be longer than 930 kilometers.

“The South Stream project is steadily progressing. Contracts for laying the first string as well as for procuring pipes for the second string will be signed before the end of this March. In less than two years the first gas supplies will be carried to Europe via the new route protected from transit risks,” said Miller.

South Stream is Gazprom's global infrastructure project aimed at constructing a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe for the purpose of diversifying the natural gas export routes and eliminating transit risks. The first gas will be supplied via South Stream in late 2015. The gas pipeline will reach its full design capacity in 2018.