Construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline was commenced in the Black Sea near the Russian coast.

Construction contract signed for second string of TurkStream’s offshore section

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said there were no doubts that Turkish Stream will happen and work could start soon. He was speaking at a joint press conference with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan August 9.

Turkey is Gazprom's second biggest export market after Germany. In 2015 Gazprom exported about 27bn m3 of gas to Turkey. Currently Russian gas is exported to Turkey via the Blue Stream gas pipeline and the Trans Balkan gas pipeline.

"Turkey needs to diversify its imported energy resources. Turkey's approach to Russia will bear fruit in early October. The feasibility of the Turk Stream natural gas pipeline project, which Putin proposed in late 2014, may begin later this year. If all things go smoothly, we may see the Russian molecules in early 2019 via a new pipeline,"

Mr. Novak said that the project could still be implemented if the European Commission develops corresponding infrastructure for natural gas transportation in Central and Eastern Europe,

Gazprom has already spent €1.8bn on purchasing physical pipe for the first and second “strings” - or lines, of pipe to be laid under the Black Sea. Pipe, delivered by Germany’s Europipe and Russia’s United Metallurgical Company (OMK) under the first string contract, signed in January 2014, is now largely stashed on the wharves of the Bulgarian port of Varna. The fate of pipe ordered for the second string, under contracts placed in March 2014, is not known.

The development of economic relations starting with the so-called suitcase trading of the early 1990s when Russian and Turkish tourists began to visit each other’s country, engaging in cross-border commerce, and ending with complex investment project such as Russia’s planned Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey contributed to the softening of those rivalries.

The Turkish Stream project is a Russian proposal which will transport Russian gas to Europe while bypassing Ukraine. The project is planned to carry 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe via the Turkish-Greek border. Turkey is due to receive 15.75 billion cubic meters out of the total capacity of the pipeline.

Russian energy giant Gazprom estimates the cost of constructing the first branch of the Turkish Stream pipeline at €4.3 billion ($4.72 billion), while the overall price tag for all four legs of this project are estimated at €11.4 billion, First Deputy Head of Gazprom's Project Management Department Aleksei Serebryakov said Monday.