By Olga Razumovskaya
MOSCOW--Russian gas monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) said
Wednesday it will increase the annual gas capacity of the Blue
Stream pipeline to 19 billion cubic meters from 16 billion cubic
meters and deliver a record volume of gas to Turkey this year.
Russia will this year deliver 30 billion cubic meters of gas to
Turkey through the pipeline that runs through the Black Sea, up
from 26.6 billion of cubic meters a year before, the company said
in a statement.
Gazprom's Chief Executive Alexei Miller and Turkish energy
minister Taner Yildiz agreed that the pipeline will soon be loaded
with Russian gas "to the maximum."
Mr. Miller said Turkey was Russia's "most dynamically developing
market from the point of view of deliveries."
Russia is at loggerheads with Ukraine and the relationship
between the two countries has been marred by conflict over gas
infrastructure, transit, prices and payments.
With the Nord Stream pipeline through the Baltic Sea to Germany
and Blue Stream to the South, Russia has cut the volumes of gas it
transports via Ukraine by more than a quarter over the past six
years. But Russia still delivered half of its natural gas to Europe
through Ukraine in 2013.
Amid the crisis in Ukraine, Europe has begun to look elsewhere
for gas supplies and Gazprom has started exploring new export
opportunities.
Write to Olga Razumovskaya at Olga.Razumovskaya@wsj.com
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