Greece Plans To Sign €5 Bln Deal With Russia On Turkish Stream Pipeline

The deal is planned to be signed on Tuesday. Its details were discussed during Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ official visit to Moscow.

Greece and Russia plan to sign a bilateral agreement which would grant Athens five billion euros as prepayment for the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.

The deal is planned to be signed on Tuesday. If the agreement is reached, the Greek budget is expected to receive three to five billion euros as an advance payment for gas transit from Russia to EU countries through the territory of Greece.

The details of the upcoming deal were discussed during Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ official visit to Moscow.

In early-December, Russia announced it would abandon the South Stream gas pipeline project. It was planned to be constructed across the Black Sea and supply gas through Bulgaria to Balkan countries, Hungary, Austria and Italy. Russia scrapped the project citing EU opposition as one of the reasons.

Instead of the South Stream project, the decision was made to build a pipeline from Russia to Turkey and create a gas hub at the Greek border for South European customers.

The Turkish Stream pipeline will deliver Russian gas to Turkey and customers in South Europe by means of a transit hub on the Turkish-Greek border. Its annual capacity is expected to be about 63 billion cubic meters. (Cihan/Ria Novosti)