“In the end, it [the pipeline] will be owned by the subject of the Russian Federation, Crimea,” Novak told reporters.
A new pipeline is planned to be laid on the bottom of a narrow waterway between Crimea and Krasnodar Region, known as the Kerch Strait, over the next few years.
The natural gas flowing through the Crimea-Kuban pipeline is expected to supplant the Black Sea peninsula’s energy dependence on Ukraine, estimated to amount to nearly three-quarters of its needs.
Russia’s 2020 federal target program for socio-economic development in Crimea outlines plans to construct the new pipeline, connecting with the existing three-city string and expanding production to over 2 billion cubic meters a year.
Over $250 million of the Crimea-Kuban pipeline’s total estimated cost of $368 million is expected to be spent on pipelaying across the bottom of the strait and the peninsula itself.