Blue Stream

Blue Stream is a major trans-Black Sea gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia into Turkey. The pipeline has been constructed by the Blue Stream Pipeline B.V., the Netherlands based joint venture of Russian Gazprom and Italian Eni. The Blue Stream Pipeline B.V. is an owner of the subsea section of pipeline, including Beregovaya compressor station, while Gazprom owns and operates the Russian land section of the pipeline and the Turkish land section is owned and operated by the Turkish energy company BOTAŞ. According to Gazprom the pipeline was built with the intent of diversifying Russian gas delivery routes to Turkey and avoiding third countries.

History

Preparations of the pipeline project started in 1997.cite news
publisher=The Power and Interest News Report (PINR)
url=http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=403&language_id=1
title= Economic Brief: The Blue Stream Gas Pipeline
date=2005-11-22
accessdate=2008-05-31] On 15 December 1997, Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on construction of the subsea pipeline. At the same time, Gazprom and BOTAŞ signed a 25-year gas sale contract. In February 1999, Gazprom and Eni signed the Memorandum of Understanding to implement the Blue Stream project. Blue Stream Pipeline B.V., a joint venture of Gazprom and Eni was registered in the Netherlands on 16 November 1999. On 23 November 1999, contracts on designing, equipment supply and the offshore section construction were signed with Saipem, Buig Offshore S.A., Katran K companies and the consortium of Mitsui, Sumitomo and Itochu.

The construction of the Russian land section took place in 2001-2002 and the offshore section in 2001-2002.cite news
publisher=Upstream Online
url=http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article119089.ece
title= Gazprom boosts Blue Stream flows
date=2006-09-14
accessdate=2008-05-31] The offshore section of the pipeline was built by Italian constructor Saipem and the Russian onshore section by Stroytransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom.cite news
publisher=Upstream Online
url=http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article37467.ece
title= Spring in Saipem's step
date=2002-11-12
accessdate=2008-05-31] The offshore pipe was layd by the pipe-laying platform Saipem 7000.cite news
publisher=Upstream Online
url=http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article54775.ece
title= Blue Stream on course
date=2001-10-18
accessdate=2008-05-31] Gas flows from Russia to Turkey started in February 2003.cite news
publisher=Upstream Online
url=http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article33319.ece
title= Blue Stream gas starts flowing
date=2003-02-20
accessdate=2008-05-31] However, because of the price dispute between Russia and Turkey, the official inauguration ceremony at the Durusu gas metering station took place only on 17 November 2005.cite news
publisher=Upstream Online
url=http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article30129.ece
title= Blue Stream stalemate
date=2003-07-11
accessdate=2008-05-31] Attending the inauguration were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Technical features

By 2010, Blue Stream is expected to be operating at full capacity, delivering 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per annum. Total length of the pipeline is convert|1213|km|mi. The Russia’s land section is convert|373|km|mi long from the Izobilnoye gas plant, Stavropol Krai, up to Arkhipo-Osipovka, Krasnodar Krai. The land section consists the Stavropolskaya and Krasnodarskaya compressor stations. The offshore section is convert|396|km|mi long laying from the Beregovaya compressor station in Arkhipo-Osipovka to the Durusu terminal locating 60 kilometers from Samsun (Turkey). Turkey’s land section is convert|444|km|mi long up to Ankara.

The pipeline uses pipes with different diameters: mainland section convert|1400|mm|in, mountainous section convert|1200|mm|in and submarine section convert|610|mm|in. The gas pressure in submarine section is 250 atm.

Financing

The total cost of the Blue Stream pipeline came to US$3.2 billion, including US$1.7 billion for its submarine segment.

Expansion

In late August 2005, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed building a second line, and an expansion of the Blue Stream by the Samsun-Ceyhan link and by branch to South East Europe. The promotion of construction the second line of pipeline, and extension it up through Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia to western Hungary has activated after decision of five countries to construct the Nabucco Pipeline from Turkey to Central and Western Europe. However, this expansion was replaced by the South Stream project, which foresees laying pipeline subsea pipeline directly from Russia to Bulgaria.

The planned Samsun-Ceyhan land pipeline and the Ceyhan-Ashkelon subsea pipeline will allow to export of Russian natural gas to Israel.cite news
publisher=Upstream Online
url=http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article127529.ece
title= Israel sets sights on Russian gas
date=2007-02-08
accessdate=2008-05-31]

Controversies

Building the Blue Stream pipeline was intended to be the foundation for a strategic partnership between Russia and Turkey, with joint participation in energy and transport projects. The existing gas transit route to Turkey went through Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria. This land route made the gas substantially more expensive, and there were continual accusations of gas being illicitly siphoned off while being transported through Ukraine and Moldova.Fact|date=May 2008 Russia considered that these problems could be solved by building a pipeline across the Black Sea floor.

One of the political goals of the Blue Stream project was to block the path of rival countries aiming to use the territory of Turkey to bring gas from the Caspian area to Europe. In November 1999, the presidents of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed a four-party inter-governmental agreement on building a rival Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. Within a few months, major oil and engineering companies—General Electric, Bechtel, Royal Dutch Shell—had established a joint venture to work on the competing project. By spring 2000, however, an argument had arisen among the Trans-Caspian participant nations over allocating quotas for Azerbaijan's use of the pipeline; as a result, all construction work was halted.

The construction of Blue Stream was accompanied by environmentalist protests; but these had no significant effect, since the official environmental impact assessment found no transgressions. Meanwhile, some Russian economic analysts objected that building a pipeline to Ankara meant tying Russia to a monopolist consumer, and Turkey was not a reliable partner. In the lead-up to Blue Stream's opening ceremony, the United States publicly criticized the pipeline, calling on Europe to avoid becoming any more dependent on Russia for energy.

ee also

*South Stream
*Nabucco Pipeline
*Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
*South Caucasus Pipeline

References

Additional reading

*Oksana Gavshina, "The Turkish Gambit", "Nezavisimaya Gazeta", 21 November 2005

External links

* [http://www.gazprom.ru/eng/articles/article8895.shtml The Blue Stream gas pipeline] , Gazprom website