Gazprom to End Gas Deliveries Via Bulgaria With Turkish Stream Commissioning

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's Gazprom energy company will end gas deliveries to Turkey through Bulgaria with the commissioning of the Turkish Stream pipeline's offshore leg, an Russia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement published on Russia's official online portal of legal information Tuesday states.

"The parties proceed from the assumption that the gas from Russia supplied to the Republic of Turkey on the Turkish border with the Republic of Bulgaria, will be delivered through [Turkish Stream's] offshore section 1 from the date of offshore section 1 commissioning," the document states.

According to the document, the contracts for Russian gas supplies to Turkey via Bulgaria should be amended on the technical conditions and gas custody transfers before putting in operation the offshore section of the Turkish Stream. Though, the changes would not affect the commercial terms of gas supply contracts.

The Turkish Stream project was announced in late 2014 by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Turkey. In November 2015, the project was suspended after a Russian Su-24 aircraft was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighter in Syria. A thaw in relations between Moscow and Ankara began last June following Turkey's apology to Russia.

Moscow and Ankara signed an intergovernmental agreement in October 2016 envisioning the construction of two underwater legs of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline in the Black Sea. The annual capacity of each leg is estimated to reach 15.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Pipe-laying work for the pipeline is expected to begin in 2017 and end in late 2019.