Erdogan, Putin to meet in Istanbul on wed.

The pipeline will transmit Russian natural gas to Turkey and Europe under the Black Sea, Hurriyet daily reported.

Russian gas producer Gazprom started shipping about 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Bulgaria via TurkStream on Jan. 1, replacing a route that formerly passed through Ukraine and Romania.

The pipeline crosses beneath the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further extends to Turkey’s borders with neighboring countries. Russia is building TurkStream in two pipelines, each with an annual capacity of 15.75 bcm. The first pipeline is aimed at supplying gas to Turkey, and the second would run further from Bulgaria to Serbia and Hungary.

The TurkStream natural gas pipeline has a total capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters, out of which the first line will carry a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Turkish consumers. The second line will carry another 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via Turkey.

MNA/PR