Gazprom, which already pumps gas to Turkey through the Blue Stream pipeline across the Black Sea, is considering the construction of a South-European gas pipeline, or Blue Stream-2, which would use Turkey as a transit point for exports to the EU.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Director General of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, Zsolt Hernadi, discussed on Thursday progress in the preparation of a feasibility study for the pipeline project, and storage of natural gas carried out by Sepco, a joint venture of Gazprom and MOL.
The heads of the energy companies positively evaluated the work of Sepco.
Gazprom and MOL - a leading integrated group of oil and gas companies in central and eastern Europe - signed an agreement on June 21, 2006 to establish a company on a parity basis to implement gas projects in Hungary.
Eighty percent of Hungary's natural gas supplies come from Gazprom, which sold 8.7 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU-member in 2006.
The Blue Stream pipeline, which carries Russian natural gas to Turkey, is the largest Russian-Turkish joint energy project to date. The $3.2 billion pipeline transported 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2005 and is expected to carry 16 billion cubic meters annually by 2010. The second stretch of the pipeline under consideration is expected to increase capacity by 8 billion cu m.
