Blue Stream Gas Pipeline
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Blue Stream Gas Pipeline is an operating natural gas pipeline.[1]
Contents
Location
The pipeline runs from the Izobilny gas plant in Stavropol Krai, Russia through Beregovaya compressor station at the Black Sea Durusu terminal to Ankara, Turkey.
Project Details
- Operator: Gazprom, Blue Stream Pipeline B.V., BOTAŞ
- Parent Company: Gazprom, Eni, BOTAŞ
- Current capacity: 16 billion cubic meters per year
- Length: 754 miles / 1,213 kilometers
- Status: Operating
- Start Year: 2003
Background
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 Gazprom and 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 the Turkish energy company BOTAŞ. According to Gazprom the pipeline was built with the intent of diversifying Russian gas delivery routes to Turkey and avoiding third countries. The project cost an estimated US$2.3 billion.[2]
Preparations for the pipeline project began in 1997.[3] 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 a 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, Bouygues Offshore S.A., Katran K 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.[4] The offshore section of the pipeline was built by Italian constructor Saipem and the Russian onshore section by Stroytransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom.[5] The offshore pipe was laid by the pipe-laying vessel Saipem 7000.[6]
Technical features
By 2010, Blue Stream was expected to be operating at full capacity, delivering 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per annum.[7] Total length of the pipeline is 1,213 km (754 mi). Russia's section is 373 km (272 mi) long from the Izobilnoye gas plant, Stavropol Krai, up to Arkhipo-Osipovka, Krasnodar Krai. The offshore section is 396 km (246 mi) from the Beregovaya compressor station in Arkhipo-Osipovka to the Durusu terminal, which is located 60 kn (37 mi) from Samsun, Turkey. Turkey's section is 444 km (270 mi) up to Ankara.
The pipeline uses pipes with different diameters: mainland section 1,400 mm (55 in); mountainous section 1200 mm (47 in); and submarine section 610 mm (24 in). The gas pressure in the submarine section is 25 MPA (250 atm).
Laid as low as 2.2 km (1.4 mi) undersea it is considered one of the deepest pipelines in the world.[8]
Operations
Gas from Blue Stream started to flow in February 2003, and the pipeline delivered 1.3 bcm to BOTAŞ in 2003.[9] From 2010 to 2014, supplies averaged 14.1 bcm per year, with a high point of 14.7 bcm in 2012.[10][11]
Financing
The total cost of the Blue Stream pipeline came to US$3.2 billion, including US$1.7 billion for its submarine segment.
Blue Stream 2
Blue Stream 2 was first proposed in 2002. In late August 2005, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed building a second line, and an expansion of the Blue Stream by the Samsun-Ceyhan link and by branch to southeast Europe. In 2009, Putin proposed a line parallel to Blue Stream 1 under the Black Sea, and from Samsun to Ceyhan. From Ceyhan natural gas would be transported to Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Cyprus.[12] Gas would be exported to Israel through the proposed Ceyhan-Ashkelon subsea pipeline.[7]
Rival Pipelines
One of the political goals of the Blue Stream project was to block the path of rival countries aiming to use Turkey to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe.[12] In November 1999, the presidents of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed a four-party intergovernmental agreement on building a rival Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline. Within a few months, major oil and engineering companies—General Electric, Bechtel, Royal Dutch Shell—had established a joint venture to work on the competing project. By spring 2000, however, an argument had arisen among the Trans-Caspian participant nations over allocating quotas for Azerbaijan's use of the pipeline; as a result, all construction work was halted.
Safety
In 2015 the Eurasian Research Institute noted that gas pressure exceeds hydrostatic pressure along the first 80 to 90 km of pipeline on the Russian coast, which means an explosion in this section would lead to "formation of gas hydrates due to high hydrostatic pressure" and would be especially damaging to the environment.[13]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ Blue Stream, Wikipedia, accessed April 2018
- ↑ [1], Rigzone, accessed September 2019
- ↑ "Economic Brief: The Blue Stream Gas Pipeline", The Power and Interest News Report (PINR) (2005-11-22). Retrieved on 2008-05-31. Archived from the original on 2007-07-02.
- ↑ Gazprom boosts Blue Stream flows, Upstream Online, Sep. 14, 2006
- ↑ Spring in Saipem's step, Upstream Online, Nov. 12, 2002
- ↑ Blue Stream on course, Upstream Online, May 31, 2008
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Israel sets sights on Russian gas, Upstream Online, Feb. 28, 2007
- ↑ "Проект "Голубой поток" (Blue Stream Project)" (in Russian), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia) (2005-11-18). Retrieved on 2009-11-11.
- ↑ ENI, " ENI Fact Book 2003, p. 41. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
- ↑ Gazprom, Blue Stream Pipeline Gazprom, retrieved August 10, 2015.
- ↑ International Energy Agency, European Gas Trade Flows, Retrieved August 2015.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Vladimir Socor (2009-08-11). "Gazprom, Turkey Revive and Reconfigure Blue Stream Two", Eurasia Daily Monitor, The Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved on 2009-08-30.
- ↑ General Environmental Impacts of Subsea Pipelines, Eurasian Research Institute, Mar. 19, 2015
Related SourceWatch articles
External resources
External articles
Wikipedia also has an article on Blue Stream (Blue Stream). This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].
