MOSCOW (Russia Today)—Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said the energy giant will build a massive gas pipeline that will travel from Russia, transit through Turkey, and stop at the Greek border – giving Russia access to the Southern European market.
The new pipeline to Turkey will have an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters. A total of 14 billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, which is Gazprom’s second biggest customer in the region after Germany.
Russia’s energy minister Aleksandr Novak said that the new project will include a specially-constructed hub on the Turkish-Greek border for customers in southern Europe.
While the pipeline will be registered as a Russian company, Miller said that Gazprom will “consider offers from Turkish partners if they express an interest in buying into the project.”
For now, the supply of Russian gas to Turkey will be raised by 3 billion cubic meters via the already operating Blue Stream pipeline, Vladimir Putin said during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Last year, 13.7 BCM of gas was supplied to Turkey via Blue Stream, according to Reuters.
From a political point of view, Turkey and Russia are “poles apart,” but from an economic point of view the gas deal between the two states has united Moscow and Ankara in a common interest.
“Turkey would in fact like the gas pipelines to go through Turkey, because they can collect rent from it,” Martin McCauley, an economics specialist from the University of London, told RT. “Turkey sees itself, if you like, as a partner – the in-between partner – who will take gas from Iran and Russia to Europe.”
Moscow will also reduce the gas price for Turkish customers by 6 percent from January 1, 2015, Putin said. Later, Novak said the discount could reach 15 percent, subject to negotiations.
Novak later confirmed that Vladimir Putin personally ordered for the South Stream project to be mothballed, and its existing facilities to be repurposed for the new Turkish pipeline.
The much-delayed South Stream was supposed to connect underwater Black Sea pipelines with a network in Eastern Europe, with Bulgaria as the entry point.
The project had run into difficulties, as it violated EU regulations on the same company owning the pipelines and the gas they transported. While several previous governments in Bulgaria, which is wholly dependent on Russian gas lobbied Brussels to make an exception, the current government said it would not give Gazprom a building permit. The cost of the underwater and Eastern European segments of the project was estimated at 23.5 billion euros, by a senior Gazprom official last month.
The new project will include a specially-constructed hub on the Turkish-Greek border. Russia’s energy minister Aleksandr Novak said it will supply customers in Eastern and Southern Europe.
This arrogant decision by Europe will cost them dearly, brushing off Russian pipeline offers like this only resulted in their gas supply line now transmitting through Turkey, which gives these mongrel Turks an awful lot of leverage over EU gas supply lines. Why would you allow the gas spiget to be handed over to Turkey when you could have kept it in Bulgaria?!! They will still be buying the gas but now it will transit from Turkey instead of through Eastern Europe, imbeciles!!!!
And now Turkey will have more leverage on European countries to push genocide denial. Thank you Mother Russia, guardian of Armenian interests!
They are indeed imbeciles!!!!
As an Armenian nationalist, I must say that this is excellent news! A Turkey dependent on a nationalist-run Russia is the best option for Armenia under current realities. Turkey is a large nation, and it is not getting wiped off of the map anytime soon. Whatever developments take place between the greater regional powers like Russia, Turkey, Iran, and others, the value of a Russia-friendly Armenia and Artsakh is as important as ever to Russian interests in the key South Caucasus region. Turkey is not capable of prying any concessions out of Russia, Russia is too powerful and dominant and Turkey has backed itself into a corner. A convergence of several recent events has made Turkey more dependent on Russia, and also somewhat strained the relationship between Turkey and the west and Israel. In turning to Russia, Turkey knows that pan-Turkism is defeated and rule by Orthodox Christian Russia is victorious. We Armenians should look at the great potential here: under Russian pressure Turkey could very well be forced to swallow its pride and open its border with Armenia, just like under Russian pressure Georgia agreed a few days ago to allowing unhindered transit between Armenia and Russia.
It is eye-opening that the biggest losers from this development are the citizens of central, eastern, and southern Europe who are being denied diversified options and routes to receive Russian gas, as well as losing the construction and maintenance jobs this multi-billion dollar project would have brought. They will just end up with more expensive gas, and greater dependency on routes that pass through the unstable conflict zone in Ukraine. The junta in Kiev is extremely unstable and unreliable, and if they keep missing payments for Russian gas then supplies will be halted and the austerity-stricken Europeans are going to suffer deep;y with even higher gas prices. Seriously, Brussels can hardly make it any clearer that it views its new, former eastern-bloc satraps as nothing more than pawns to be used and sacrificed in Brussels’s rivalry with Moscow. This development highlights that it has always been the EU which threatens Armenia’s sovereignty, not the Russian-led Eurasian Union – the EU just ordered Bulgaria to act against Bulgarian interests, and Bulgaria complied! Thank God Armenia managed to avoid becoming EU slaves or that could have been us. This is EU short-sightedness at its worst; I can’t see a single benefit for the EU, especially considering that the EU will not be reducing its dependence on Russian gas imports anytime soon. EU member Bulgaria gave up hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees, and non-EU member Turkey was able to capitalize on Bulgaria’s loss. All while the EU pushes Bulgaria to allow mass immigration of Muslims, Africans, and Asians; go further into debt slavery; accept homosexuality, pedophilia, prostitution, and radical feminism; drug culture; GMOs; and other destructive western policies which have dropped the Bulgarian birth rate even lower than Armenia’s (Armenia 1.74/1000 v. Bulgaria 1.50/1000).
Once again, instead of fear-mongering we should be looking to make the most of this historic opportunity of Russia bringing Turkey into its orbit. God Bless Russia, God Bless Armenia, and God Bless the Russia-Armenia alliance and protect it from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Kevin Abrahamian,
Glendale. Greenpeace. Armenian.
If we take advantage yes but Turkey now will get all the pipeline transfer money and Islam will grow even stronger. All you can do is sit and watch Turkey grow stronger and prepare cannon meat for arm-azeri border.
There is only one truth: The more people leave their country the more trouble is ahead for that country.
How can ARMENIANS dream of A bigger country if THEY do not want to live there?
That is called paradox or an Armenian phenomenon. HAHA. Period.
What can unite and bring ALL THOSE LEFT Armenians back to Armenia?
THE DIFFRENCE IN AMOUNT OF HELP VS TROUBLE RECEIVED FROM RUSSIA IN PAST 300 YEARS IS NOT THAT SIGNIFICANT AT ALL . ARMENIA HAS BEEN A MAJOR BATTLE BASE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ASIAN WORLD.
ALL PUTIN CARES IS ABOUT POWER NOT A TINY FLOCK OF PEOPLE CALLED ARMENIANS PERIOD!!!
“under Russian pressure Turkey could very well be forced to swallow its pride and open its border with Armenia, just like under Russian pressure Georgia agreed a few days ago to allowing unhindered transit between Armenia and Russia.”
Georgia is a tiny country. Turkey has 10 times the population, larger land mass and has a more strategics geographic position. It has much more bargaining power than Georgia. Same with Armenian and tiny Artsakh. As strong as the hearts of Artsakhtsis beat, Russia is in a position to sell Artsakh to get something out of Armenia’s neighbors. Why hasn’t our ally, blessed by God Russia not recognized Artsakh yet? Why hasn’t Armenia officially recognized Artsakh yet? What are we waiting for? Russia. Russia, controls things and does things for their benefit, not ours.
People should remeber that Russia is not a Non Profit Organization
Spot on Kevin!
Wait, what? Russia will pressure Turkey into doing something good for Armenia? Why?
I agree
There goes any hope pinned on Mother Russia by the Russophiles. This is what we get when we believe that the ‘Orthodox Brotherhood’ can supersede money, power and greed.
Our naivete has and will continue to pave the way to our eventual demise. This unforgiving world does not tolerate the timid or the bland.
Agree
I’d much prefer Turkey under Russian influence/control than that of the West. This may very well be a very positive development for Armenia.
Agreed.
Russians are building a pipeline through Western Armenia to Avropa. Why is it such a bad thing?
One thing that Russophiles must also learn is that Mr. Putin is the CEO of Mother Russia. As with any business enterprise, the primary purpose is to make money. There is no other consideration other than to show profit to his shareholders, in this case the powers that prop him up, and to a lesser extent, the common people who will benefit from the overall prosperity of the country. Therefore, any notion of a brotherhood or principles are complete fantasies. If we continue to believe that virtue will triumph all, then we have much to worry about. In order to persevere we must change our approach to the way we conduct our business. This is not about history, culture, literature or any other intangible asset that no one wants. It is about having leverage over things that other nations want and will bend over backwards to get. It’s about having tangible assets that will demand respect. Without working towards this end, we will surely end up in history’s dust bin faster than we can imagine.
Whether it is a Bulgarian pipeline or a Turkish pipeline, the important bit to remember is who controls the tap on the other end. Well played Vlad.
What does this have to do with Armenia? Knee jerk keyword Turkey?
who is the timid ? who is the bland ? The EU is a vassal colony of hegemonic USA. They can not even tie their own shoelaces without the USA nodding its ok. We are not going to our demise ( sorry Hratch to disappoint you) . We shall grow stronger with a renewed Russian strength and power. Without Russia’s umbrella in the Caucasus there is not going to be an Armenia any longer. Capito ?
Armenia will do just fine without Russia you worry about your soft under belly not the armenians 😉
EU’s Juncker says South Stream pipeline can still be built
As i said it before its a big bluff when russia decided to build a pipeline via turkey wait and you will see thats its a big bluff , you see likes to jump bridge and they love to lie and backstabb everyone and anyone and i’m not going to exclude their own mother or mothers its in their blood so this was a big test for these parasites and they will fail dont beleive everyhting that is being told on television.
dont beleive everyhting that is being told on television = telle vision tell a vision via our eyes they like feed us more bullshit about the turkeys government its like a program tell a vision , vision of course is our eyes and telle means dictate to the eyes then goes to our brains and we go crazy over some bullshit pff.
Enough of siding with the West and others.
Russia catering to Turkey! Of course! If there is war, Turks will close the Dardanelles and the Russian navy in the Black Sea will get trapped. Unless,Moscow transfers it’s navy to Vladivostok or Murmansk. That’s unlikely!
Russians must please Turkey at all cost. Yes! The pipeline above is one example!