Russia, Greece to Create Joint Venture for Turkish Stream Extension

Russia and Greece will create a joint project company on the 50-50 basis within the framework of the memorandum on construction of the extension of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday.

ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — Novak and his Greek counterpart Panagiotis Lazafanis signed the memorandum earlier Friday.

"This memorandum envisages creating a joint project company which will implement the construction of the pipeline on the Greek territory, it's called the Southern-European pipeline in the memorandum," Novak said when signing the deal.

The joint venture will be created on the 50-50 basis, Novak said.

According to Novak, Moscow will finance the project at first, and the funds spent "will return by implementing the project itself." The Greek leg of the project will cost approximately two billion euros ($2.26 billion).

"The construction will begin in 2016 and end in late 2019," Novak added.

The Turkish Stream pipeline was proposed by Russia in December 2014. It is expected to run across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey. A gas hub on the Greek-Turkish border in Ipsala will receive an annual 47 billion cubic meters of gas, while the full capacity of the pipeline's four strings will total 63 billion cubic meters, according to Russian energy giant Gazprom.

Turkish Stream gas is expected to start flowing in December 2016.