Naftogaz: Nord Stream 2, Turkish Stream Would End Gas Transit Through Ukraine

Ukraine would be completely deprived of gas transit, if Russia's Nord Stream 2 and Turkish stream gas pipeline projects were brought to life, the chief executive of the national gas firm Naftogaz said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The both pipeline projects could end gas transit through Ukrainian territory of transit and reduce the cost of the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS) fivefold, Andriy Kobolyev said.

"If both the Nord Stream 2 and the Turkish stream projects are implemented… I guess there will be no transit through the Ukrainian territory at all, which, I guess, would reduce the cost of the Ukrainian GTS fivefold, " Kobolyev told the 3STV television channel.

The Turkish Stream project was announced in late 2014 by Russian President Vladimir Putin on his state visit to Turkey. The pipeline is expected to run beneath the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and continue to a hub on the Turkish-Greek border, from where the gas could be transferred to Southern Europe.

In November 2015, the project was suspended after a Russian Su-24 aircraft was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighter in Syria. After a thaw in relations between Moscow and Ankara last June, the project was restarted, Pipe-laying work for the Turkish Stream is scheduled to begin in 2017 and end in late 2019.

The Nord Stream 2 project aims to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to the European Union across the Baltic Sea making a landfall in Germany. It plans to use the original 2011 Nord Stream pipeline for 86 percent of the route before branching off.