Project Profile
Value: US$3.2 billion
Location: Russia to Turkey
Start-up Year: Feb 2003
Length: 1,213 kilometres (754 mi)
Blue Stream is a major trans-Black Sea gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia into Turkey. The pipeline has been constructed by the Blue Stream Pipeline B.V., the Netherlands based joint venture of Russian Gazprom and Italian Eni. The Blue Stream Pipeline B.V. is an owner of the subsea section of pipeline, including Beregovaya compressor station, while Gazprom owns and operates the Russian land section of the pipeline and the Turkish land section is owned and operated by BOTAŞ. According to Gazprom the pipeline was built with the intent of diversifying Russian gas delivery routes to Turkey and avoiding third countries.
Preparations of the pipeline project started in 1997. On 15 December 1997, Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on construction of the subsea pipeline. At the same time, Gazprom and BOTAŞ signed a 25-year gas sale contract. In February 1999, Gazprom and Eni signed the Memorandum of Understanding to implement the Blue Stream project. Blue Stream Pipeline B.V., a joint venture of Gazprom and Eni was registered in the Netherlands on 16 November 1999. On 23 November 1999, contracts on designing, equipment supply and the offshore section construction were signed with Saipem and Bouygues Offshore S.A., companies and the consortium of Mitsui, Sumitomo and Itochu. The construction of the Russian land section took place in 2001-2002 and the offshore section in 2001-2002. The offshore section of the pipeline was built by Italian constructor Saipem and the Russian onshore section by Stroytransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom. The offshore pipe was laid by the pipe-laying vessel Saipem 7000. Gas flows from Russia to Turkey started in February 2003.
Operators:
Joint venture for the pipeline: Blue Stream Pipeline Company BV
Gazprom
Eni
Contractors:
DOF Subsea: Pipeline inspection contract
Contracts on designing, equipment supply and the offshore section construction:
Saipem
Bouygues Offshore S.A
Consortium for designing pipeline:
Mitsui
Sumitomo
Itochu
Stroytransgaz: Built onshore section of pipeline
Fugro: Contract for inspection of the Blue Stream pipeline in the Black Sea. The contract calls for the provision of survey support vessels and associated survey services to perform the 2015 external pipeline inspection for the offshore, shore approach, and dry section components of the Blue Stream Pipeline System. The two 24” gas export pipelines, E1 and W2, run from the Beregovaya gas compression station in Russia’s Arkhipo-Osipovka, 235 miles (378km) across the Black Sea, with a maximum water depth of approximately 2,150 metres, to the Durusu inlet terminal 40 miles (64km) from Samsun in Turkey. The in-field work in both areas has now been completed and the reporting stage is now underway. (October 2015)