Gazprom laid down 1,500 kilometers of TurkStream gas pipeline across the two lines, corresponding to about 80 percent of the total length of the pipeline, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Thursday.
Miller’s comments came during a conference call dedicated to the day of workers in the oil and gas industry, according to a statement from Gazprom subsidiary and project developer South Stream Transport B.V. based in Amsterdam.
TurkStream is a natural gas pipeline running through the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey, consisting of two 930 km lines with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters each.
The first line is intended for gas supplies to Turkish consumers, while the second is to supply gas to south and southeastern Europe.
The pipeline, which will proceed into Europe either through Bulgaria and Serbia or through Greece and Italy, will become operational at the end of 2019.
The world's largest construction and heavy-lift vessel, Pioneering Spirit, which is currently laying the second line of the project, set a new world record in offshore pipelaying on Sunday.
Gazprom said on its official Instagram account on Monday that the vessel, which belongs to the Allseas company, laid 6.27 kilometers of pipes per day on Aug. 26, surpassing the average 4 kilometers per day.
The first line of the TurkStream reached the Turkish shore off Kiyikoy in northwestern Turkey on April 29.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr