Blue Stream Gas Pipeline

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Blue Stream Gas Pipeline (Russian: Голубой поток) is an operating natural gas pipeline in Russia and Turkey.

Location

The pipeline runs from Izobilny, Stavropol Krai, Russia, through Beregovaya compressor station in Arkhipo-Osipovka, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, to the Durusu terminal in Turkey and then to Ankara, Turkey.

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Project details

• Operator: Gazprom, Blue Stream Pipeline B.V., BOTAŞ
• Owner: Gazprom, Eni, BOTAŞ
• Parent company: Gazprom, BOTAŞ
• Capacity: 16 bcm/year
• Length: 1,213 km, 1,250 km
• Diameter: 610 mm, 1200 mm, 1400 mm
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 2003
• Cost: USD1.9 billion, USD 3.2 billion
• Financing: Italy’s Sace, the UK’s Export Credits Guarantee Department, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) and Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC)
• Associated infrastructure: Pochinki-Izobilnoe-North Stavropol Underground Gas Storage Pipeline

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 involved a US$2.3 billion investment.

Preparations for the pipeline project began 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 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. 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.

The owners of the onshore segments of the gas pipeline in Russia and Turkey are Gazprom and Botas Petroleum Pipeline, respectively. The owner of the offshore segment and the Beregovaya compressor station is Blue Stream Pipeline Company B.V., which is owned by Eni and Gazprom.

Possible ownership change in 2022

In March 2022, Eni has declared its intention to sell its stake in the Blue Stream pipeline. As of July 2022, it was unclear whether this sale took place.

As of July 2023, Eni's intention to divest is valid, yet no definitive action ensued.

Technical features

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, with a diameter of 56 and 48 inches. 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, known as the Samsun-Ankara gas Pipeline.

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.

Operations

From 2010 to 2014, supplies averaged 14.1 bcm per year, with a high point of 14.7 bcm in 2012. In 2021, the gas supplies increased to 15.98 bcm/year, a record number for the pipeline. As of December 2022, almost 218 bcm of gas were transported via the pipeline to Turkey. The pipeline receives gas from the Pochinki-Izobilnoe-North Stavropol Underground Gas Storage Pipeline. Both pipelines underwent preventative maintenance in May 2023, as a result of which the pipeline stopped operating for 5 days.

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.

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. 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.

Articles and 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].