SAMSUN (Turkey), November 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Blue Stream natural gas pipeline will minimize transportation risks because it runs directly from Russia to Turkey, the chief executive of Russian gas giant Gazprom said Friday.
"It ensures safe and uninterrupted deliveries of Russian natural gas to Turkey," Alexei Miller said, while leading a tour of the gas measuring unit for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who attended the ceremony of opening the pipeline, the world's deepest underwater line running across the floor of the Black Sea.
Miller said the $3.5-billion project was a good example of diversifying gas export routes.
Miller showed the leaders the pipeline's outline. It comprises a 222-mile land section to the Black Sea coast, a 235-mile section along the Black Sea floor as far as Samsun on the Turkish coast, and a 300-mile link from Samsun to Ankara.
"We are studying a possibility of transiting Russian gas via Turkey, in the first instance, to southern Italy, which has not imported Russian natural gas yet," Miller said.
The pipeline operator is Blue Stream Pipeline Company and its partners are Rome-based energy giant ENI and Gazprom.
Pointing to the gas measuring unit at the Durusu terminal, Miller said it was "where natural gas changes the Russian flag into the Turkish one."
The unit controls the volume and quality of incoming natural gas, he explained. It is run by two operators, has an automated function, and the necessary data is displayed on monitors, the Gazprom chief said. A process flow sheet is also available.
Blue Stream reached its designed annual capacity of 16 billion cu m Friday, which Miller called an important event. "This is why we said Blue Stream had been put into full operation," he said.
According to Miller, the project is a remarkable example of three-party cooperation, both in construction and research. He said it had been very challenging technologically because it ran at a depth of 2,150 meters (more than 7,000 feet), i.e. deeper than any other subsea pipelines, in an extremely aggressive sulphureous environment. Moreover, its land segment in Russia had to be laid through the Caucasus mountain range.
Seismological control is constantly being maintained with the help of acoustic equipment, he assured.
"This is an unprecedented project, and it has been successful technologically, economically, and environmentally," Miller concluded.
