Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak attended the ceremony.
Today, after the opening ceremony of the offshore section, the Turkish and Russian presidents will hold a bilateral meeting, during which they will discuss the development of economic relations between the two countries, as well as the settlement of the Syrian crisis.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin also attended the opening of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream.
Russia's Gazprom launched the construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline in May 2017. The section runs along the bottom of the Black Sea to the Turkish coast. Its length is 930 kilometers. Further, an onshore transit (second) section with a length of 180 kilometers will be laid to Turkey's borders with neighboring countries.
The first branch is designed for the Turkish market, while the second branch for gas supply to the countries of Southern and Southeastern Europe. The capacity of each branch is 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Gas is planned to be supplied at the end of 2019.
In May 2018, Gazprom and the Turkish government signed a protocol on the onshore section of the transit branch of the Turkish Stream to supply Russian gas to European consumers.
South Stream Transport BV was involved in construction of the offshore section of the gas pipeline.
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