MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anna Liatsou – Greece expects to get "significant financial dividends" of hundreds of millions of euros annually from the so-called Turkish Stream project to deliver natural gas from Russia after 2019, the Greek energy minister told Sputnik.
"The pipeline will bring extremely important profits to Greece, first of all, cheaper gas and, naturally, other incomes that may amount to hundreds of millions of euros annually," Greek Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said.
The minister said that Athens expected to "receive significant financial dividends for the pipeline's operations after 2019," when Russia will stop delivering Europe-bound gas via Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Turkish Stream pipeline could turn Greece into one of the main energy distribution centers in Europe. According to Putin, Athens could earn hundreds of millions of euros through gas transits annually if it joins the Turkish stream pipeline project.
In December 2014, Moscow announced the cancellation of the South Stream gas pipeline intended to traverse the Black Sea to deliver Russian natural gas through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to Italy and Austria.
The Turkish Stream pipeline will replace the South Stream, and have an annual capacity similar to the latter. The new pipeline will head to Turkey and a gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border for further distribution to consumers in southern Europe.
