Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, launched the TurkStream gas pipeline.
The pipeline will deliver gas to Turkey, as well as to countries in Southern, Southeastern, and Central Europe.
Furthermore, the launch of TurkStream marks the completion of the next stage in the diversification of Russian gas exports.
Since early January, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Greece have begun receiving gas via TurkStream.
In addition to these countries, Russian gas is expected to reach Serbia this year and Hungary in 2021.
The Serbian section of the pipeline is also already operational.
The first Russian gas deliveries to Serbia are expected to begin in May of this year, totaling approximately 3 billion cubic meters per year.
The combined capacity of the two pipelines is 31.5 billion cubic meters, of which exactly half is destined for Turkey, and the other half for the countries of southeastern and central Europe: Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Slovakia. Since 2002, Turkey has also been supplied with gas via the Blue Stream pipeline, with a capacity of 16 billion cubic meters.
