Construction works for TurkStream's offshore section began in the deep waters of the Black Sea, according to Gazprom's statement released Friday.
The company announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in attendance for the start of the works in the Russian city of Anapa on the northern coast of the Black Sea.
The largest construction vessel ever built with a length and width of 382 meters and 124 meters respectively, the Pioneering Spirit, will undertake the construction, Alexey Miller, chairman of the board of Gazprom, was quoted as saying.
With the help of the TurkStream project, Russian gas will be carried initially to Turkey and then to south and southeastern Europe, Miller said.
'Turkey produces 38 percent of its electricity from natural gas. Therefore, the project will help to increase Turkey's and the region's energy security to a considerable extent,' he added.
Highlighting the importance of carrying Russian gas to south and southeastern Europe through TurkStream, Miller asserted that the demand for natural gas in the region would increase as a consequence of the fall in natural gas production in the region and the need to decrease the share of coal in the total energy production in the Balkans.
The TurkStream pipeline is a transit-free export gas pipeline which will not only stretch across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey but will further extend to Turkey's border with neighboring countries.
One line is expected to supply the Turkish market, while a second line will carry gas to southern and southeastern Europe. Each line will have the throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The pipes for the TurkStream will start from Russia's Anapa on the Black Sea coast and will be laid over a 900-kilometer route under the Black Sea to reach the Thrace region of Turkey along the Black Sea coast.
Reporting by Emre Gurkan Abay in Moscow
Writing by Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
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