From January 1 to August 15, 2017, Gazprom’s gas supplies to the countries that will be serviced by the future Turkish Stream pipeline rose up markedly. In particular, Russian gas supplies to Turkey, Southern, and Southeastern Europe increased against the corresponding period of 2016 as follows: exports to Turkey increased by 22.4 percent, to Greece by 13.2 percent, to Serbia by 40.8 percent, to Bulgaria by 11.1 percent, and to Hungary by 24.4 percent.

The volume of Russian gas exports to foreign countries increased from January 1 to August 15, 2017 by 12.7 billion cubic meters, or 12 percent, relative to the corresponding period of the prior year, up to 118.3 billion cubic meters (4.17 tcf).

On May 7, 2017, Gazprom began the construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline on the Russian Black Sea coast. The Turkish Stream project envisions the construction of a gas pipeline through the Black Sea to the European part of Turkey and further to the border with Greece. The length of the sea section of the pipeline will be about 910 kilometers, while the overland part crossing Turkey will be 180 kilometers.

The pipeline’s first thread is intended for the Turkish market, while the second for the countries of Southern and Southeastern Europe. The capacity of each thread is projected to be 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas a year (0.55 tcf). The total cost of the project with four threads was estimated at 11.4 billion euros. Gazprom is committed to investing into this project RUB41.92 billion (USD708 million) in 2017.

In other news, Gazpom’s supplies to the C.I.S. and the Baltic states increased some 12.9 percent in the reporting period in year-on-year terms. The company’s gas deliveries to Ukraine increased 13.5 percent to 1.389 billion cubic meters (0.04 tcf).