Putin: Our pipeline deal with Turkish partners is final

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would not refuse to cooperate with Turkey on a new undersea gas pipeline. Speaking at a joint news conference in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin said that the South Stream gas pipeline, which was to have pumped Russian gas under the Black Sea into southern Europe, was torpedoed by European objections. In December, Russia scrapped the South Stream project to carry gas under the western Black Sea to Bulgaria and further into European markets.

Putin offered a new gas pipeline route via the Black Sea to reach Turkey's northwestern region of Thrace, dubbed the Turkish Stream, which would also involve a gas hub at the Turkish-Greek border to transfer gas further into Europe.

Energy expert Jams Anderson of Oxford University's Energy Institute said that Russia's state-run Gazprom's new project, the Turkish Stream, has a higher commercial potential than the South Stream project, which is currently suspended. Speaking at the IP Weekly energy conference organized in London last week, Anderson said that while the South Stream was a more political project, the Turkish Stream is more profitable for Russia. He further said that the Turkish Stream would serve as a transfer point for Russia's natural gas sales to Europe and Asia.

Turkey and Hungary are examining new energy polices after Russia's axing of its South Stream project in December. During his visit to Turkey last month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said: "We are looking for new alternatives since the cancellation of the South Stream project, and Turkey is an important factor."

The Turkish Stream is expected to supply 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, which at present transits through Ukraine, according to Russian officials. According to the plan, the EU is going to receive Russian natural gas by building a new pipeline that will extend to the Turkey-Greece border. Turkey and Russia will sign an agreement for the project in the second quarter of this year, according to Alexei Miller, CEO of the Russian state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom.

Turkey's energy minister and Gazprom's chief took a helicopter ride over the Black Sea to survey a possible route for the Turkish Stream pipeline last week. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız and Miller took off from Istanbul and flew along the Black Sea coast to İpsala on the Turkey-Greece border to evaluate possible entry points for the proposed pipeline.