Gazprom seeks ways to get by without Ukraine

An alternative would be the recently announced expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea. European partners are getting confused by Gazprom’s constant changes of plans, finding it difficult to accommodate to them, according to the Ukrainian Kommersant newspaper.

 Just three months ago, sources close to Gazprom stated that the company was still committed to construction of the Southern Corridor, despite uncertainties with gas deliveries to Europe. Gazprom declined to comment on the issue.

Gazprom’s Eurasian strategy involving gas supplies to both Europe and China clearly focuses on developing European direction, at least based on the statements of Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.  He has been willingly talking about his company’s plans for new pipelines to the EU, namely Turkish Stream and Nord Stream-2, designed to help Gazprom bypass Ukraine in its shipments of gas to Europe due to a succession of pricing rows. Tensions between Moscow and Kyiv are also high due to fighting in east Ukraine, where Kyiv forces repel attacks by Russia-backed militants.

 Southern Corridor was originally designed to supply gas to South Stream gas pipeline, which should have passed under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria and, after the abandonment of the project in December 2014, it was supposed to feed Turkish Stream with gas. However, negotiations with Turkey regarding the construction of this pipeline are dragging on: all that Gazprom has managed to achieve over the last seven months was obtaining permission to conduct engineering surveys in the Turkish sector of the Black Sea, which was issued for only one of the four possible pipeline strings. Suspension of investments in the eastern branch of the Southern Corridor implies that Gazprom does not count on the capacity of the Turkish Stream to exceed 32 bcm of gas per year in the foreseeable future.