“Is the so-called European hub on the Turkey-Greece border possible? This does not depend on us. It depends mostly on our European partners,” the president said during his annual end-of-year press conference.
After much opposition from the European Commission, the Russian president announced the termination of Russia’s South Stream pipeline project on December 1. The main aim of the pipeline was to deliver Russian natural gas to a number of European countries via a new route under the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine.
According to the Commission, the now abandoned project was in breach of EU’s Third Energy Package, which forbids gas producers from owning the pipelines through which it flows.
It is now up to the European Union to decide if they want to create the hub and ensure “stable, secure and absolutely clear deliveries of energy resources that they need so badly from Russia, without transit risks,” the president said Thursday, reaffirming Russia’s willingness to collaborate in this sphere.
Putin underlined that Europe has no cheaper and more reliable gas supplier than Russia as of today, and this situation is not expected to change in the foreseeable future.
Addressing the gas deal with Turkey, the president stated that “Turkish partners are raising the question to first of all increase the [gas] supplies to the internal Turkish market”. The necessary agreements regarding prices and delivery schedule are already in place, he informed.
“As for the contract with China, it is not detrimental. I want to stress, both sides agreed to discounts, and this is true,” he stated without specifying the details of the discounts.
The Russian-Chinese gas contract stipulates 30 years of Russian gas deliveries to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline, which is currently under construction. Russia is to deliver of 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China annually, starting 2018.
