"Such agreements will allow to ensure the security of the implementation of infrastructure projects carried out by Turkish companies on the territory of Russia as well as those carried out by Russian organizations on the Turkish territory. In particular, cooperation will be strengthened on the Turkish Stream pipeline project," Puchkov said on Saturday, after a bilateral meeting with Kurtulmus, held on the sidelines of the third world conference on disaster risk reduction in Sendai, northern Japan.
Russia abandoned its years-old South Stream pipeline project that was to bring Russian natural gas across the Black Sea through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to Italy and Austria last December, announcing a fallback plan to deliver the gas through Turkey.
Russian energy giant Gazprom and its Turkish partner Botas have already mapped out the route of the new pipeline, dubbed Turkish Stream, with an inter-governmental agreement expected to be inked in the second quarter of 2015. The pipeline's first leg is scheduled to be constructed by the end of 2016.
Turkish Stream's capacity is expected to stand at 63 billion cubic meters of gas a year, which is equivalent to what the South Stream was to carry to Europe. Turkey will receive around 16 billion cubic meters of gas via the new pipeline, with the remaining 47 billion earmarked for Europe.
