The minister said that the country already contributes to the European Union’s energy security as it provides one-fifth of the natural gas consumed by the bloc member countries, while Russia provides 30 percent of the gas consumed in Europe.
“We can step up further in the years to come,” Brande said on Saturday as quoted by Radio Free Europe.
In December 2014, Russian energy giant Gazprom head Alexei Miller announced that a new pipeline to Turkey with an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of gas will be constructed. Around 14 billion cubic meters of gas will be supplied to Turkey, with the rest being pumped to a hub on the Turkish-Greece border for customers in Europe.
The announcement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was not willing to continue the implementation of the South Stream gas pipeline project, designed to go under the Black Sea from Russia to Europe, in light of the European Commission's "non-constructive" stance on the matter.
