MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, ratified on Friday an agreement with Ankara on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.
An explanatory note accompanying the ratification explains that reduced transit risks and Gazprom's contractual obligations to supply Turkey and the European Union with gas after 2019 were the driving forces behind the feasibility of the project.
"Reliable and uninterrupted supplies of Russian gas through the Turkish Stream gas pipeline will ensure annual export duty revenues to the Russian budget of approximately $750 million with respect to only the first branch of the pipeline, intended for gas supplies to Turkish customers," the note states.
"In case of the second string's implementation and depending on the list of countries, whose consumers will receive gas transited through Turkey from the second branch, budget revenues comparable [to those received from the supplies via the first string] could be guaranteed by export duties of deliveries via the second leg," the note said.
The note said the implementation of the agreement would not result in additional expenditures burdening Russia's budget.
Moscow and Ankara signed an intergovernmental agreement in October 2016 envisioning the construction of two underwater legs of the gas pipeline in the Black Sea. The annual capacity of each leg is estimated to reach 15.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Pipe-laying work for the Turkish Stream is expected to begin in 2017 and end in late 2019.
