Russian gas giant Gazprom said that it has secured construction permit from Turkish authorities through diplomatic channels for the second string of the TurkStream gas pipeline.

The approval is for the construction of the offshore section of the pipeline in the exclusive economic zone and territorial waters of Turkey.

The TurkStream gas pipeline will stretch from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea and further to the Turkish border with neighboring countries. It will begin near the town of Anapa along the Russian coast and run through 900km in the Black Sea before connecting onshore in the Thrace region of Turkey.

The second string of the pipeline project will deliver gas to the southern and southeastern parts of Europe. On the other hand, the first string of the pipeline is planned to serve the Turkish gas market.

The two strings of the TurkStream pipeline project will have an annual throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas.

Gazprom management committee chairman Alexey Miller revealed that the transit-free export gas pipeline project is going as per plan. Work on the pipeline project is taking place simultaneously at three sections in onshore Russia, onshore Turkey and in the Black Sea.

More than 760km of the two strings of TurkStream have already been built at the offshore section in the Black Sea while construction of the landfall of the pipeline in Russia is almost completed.

In Turkey, work has commenced at the construction location of the receiving terminal of the pipeline.

Miller added: “We now have all of the required permits from the Turkish Government to lay the TurkStream gas pipeline in the offshore area.

“It is therefore a certainty that both strings of the gas pipeline will be put into operation right on time, before the end of 2019.”

In May 2017, South Stream Transport, a subsidiary of Gazprom began construction of the offshore section of TurkStream, which includes pipe-laying in the Black Sea waters.

Image: A section of the TurkStream gas pipeline in the Black Sea. Photo: courtesy of Gazprom.