Putin says onshore part of TurkStream pipe to be built in 2019

ISTANBUL, Nov 19 (PRIME) -- The onshore part of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline will be laid as fast as the deep-sea part and will be finished before the end of 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they launched construction of the final sections of the deep-sea part of the pipeline.

“The laying of the onshore part of the TurkStream is next. We expect works on it to be done as fast (as the laying of the deep-sea part) so that the pipeline is launched until the end of 2019 as planned,” Putin said.

Putin also thanked Erdogan for his political will and courage, as “such projects cannot be implemented without that as competition strengthens,” he said.

He also said that the TurkStream project is not aimed against anybody’s interests, and its goal is to improve relations between states. The project fully corresponds to the national interests of Turkey, he said.

The TurkStream pipeline was designed to consist of two branches with a length of over 900 kilometers and a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters each. One of them is to carry Russian gas to Turkey, while the other is to transit gas to the European countries through Turkey.

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