UPDATE: Report: Russia, Turkey to share land Turkish Stream costs

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MOSCOW/ANKARA, Aug 11 (PRIME) -- Russia and Turkey will make equal contributions to financing of the land part of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Thursday, as cited by channel Haberturk.

“There are no problems with Turkish Stream. We have proposed splitting the investment in half for financing the project on the Turkish territory,” Erdogan said.

Ambassador to Russia Umit Yardym told PRIME that paperwork for Turkish Stream is at a critically important stage in Turkey.

On Wednesday, CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom Alexei Miller said that Turkey wants to issue a confirmation of an earlier permit for construction of Turkish Stream in its waters, and Gazprom is waiting for the permit to continue.

“The work on Turkish Stream continue. In fact, we are at a critically important stage,” Yardym said. The official added that it is too early to say when an agreement on the pipeline can be signed because the consultations have not started yet.

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.

Initially, the Turkish Stream project foresaw 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.

On Wednesday, Anatoly Fayantsev, a department director of Gazprom said that the company will be trying to receive project financing on the sea part of Turkish Stream after the works on the project start.

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