ANKARA 

The construction of the TurkStream project's gas receiving terminal in Kiyikoy, Turkey's main onshore section, marked a 50 percent threshold in completion, according to Erol Yazici, construction manager of the terminal in the Kırklareli Province in northwestern Turkey.

Yazici told Anadolu Agency on Monday that the physical construction of the Kiyikoy receiving terminal, located approximately 100 kilometers west of Istanbul, started in March 2018.

He said that after completion of the terminal construction, a series of tests would be carried out in preparation for the pipeline's gas transmission operations by the end of 2019.

He detailed that so far, 3.5 million man-hours of work had been carried out.

"It was a process where nearly 2,000 people worked on the construction site. At the design stage of this project, I worked at the TurkStream headquarters in the Netherlands for one year. The construction continues to be conducted by a highly competent staff," he said.

Yazici explained how out of the many international energy projects he worked on during his career, the TurkStream project excelled in many areas.

"I can talk about many things that distinguish this project from others. The environmental engineers and archaeologists work non-stop onsite. A large team is constantly working on noise and traffic issues, and security is the number one priority for the team," he said.

The contract for the construction of the natural gas receiving terminal was signed with Petrofac in September 2017, and the company assigned the Turkish construction company Tekfen as its main subcontractor.

The construction of the landfall facilities on the Russian side of the Black Sea, near the city of Anapa, was completed in 2018.

The TurkStream project consists of two lines, the first of which will serve Turkey with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters, while the second line is planned to serve Europe.

The world's largest construction vessel, the Allseas-owned ‘Pioneering Spirit’, completed the construction of the two offshore pipelines for the project.