UPDATE2: Russia’s Gazprom CEO, Turkish min discuss Turkish Stream

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ANKARA, Aug 31 (PRIME) -- CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom Alexei Miller and Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak have discussed continuation of an suspended project of Russia-led gas pipeline Turkish Stream, spokesman for the Turkish ministry Mehmet Ali Berber said on Wednesday.

“Negotiations between the executives of pipeline company Botas and a Gazprom delegation led by Alexei Miller are taking place in Istanbul. Before this, the head of Gazprom met with our minister one to one. Turkish Stream, an arbitration process concerning gas discounts and regional energy issues are being discussed,” the official said.

Dmitry Khandoga, a deputy department director of the company, said at a conference call that Gazprom has restarted active Turkish Stream preparation efforts with the Russian Energy Ministry. “We are now preparing an intergovernmental agreement and defining the next steps to fulfill it.”

Gazprom issued a statement saying that the company reached an agreement with Turkey to receive all necessary permits to start the construction as soon as possible.Ñommercial negotiations will continue, the company said.

In December 2014, Russia cancelled building the South Stream natural gas pipeline, which was supposed to carry Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine, and decided to redirect all gas supplies to Turkey through the yet-to-be-built Turkish Stream pipeline. But the talks on the project stalled as relations between the two countries worsened.

Earlier in August, Russian and Turkish officials said that they are interested in a restart of negotiations on the Turkish Stream.

Initially, the Turkish Stream project envisaged construction of four lines with a total capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, but later media reported that Ankara is not interested in three transit lines.

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