Turkey will benefit from South Stream closure both economically and politically - Gazprom CEO Miller
MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - The blockage of the South Stream gas pipeline project by the European Commission has benefited Turkey both economically and politically, while Europe, chiefly Bulgaria, has lost billions of dollars in investment, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in an interview in an analytical program hosted by Sergei Brilyov on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Saturday.
"Bulgaria will not only lose profit because of the non-implementation of the project on building a gas pipeline to Turkey but will also incur direct losses. Over 3 billion euro will not be invested in Bulgaria, and over 6,000 jobs will not be created, but Bulgaria is also losing transit country status, considering that 18 billion cubic meters of gas is being transported through Bulgaria to Turkey, Macedonia, and Greece. And after the implementation of the marine gas pipeline project in Turkey's direction, all these amounts will go through Turkey, not through Bulgaria," he said.
"Turkey has gained about as much. The European Union, the European Commission, have simply given Turkey a gas valve. And I think Turkey might make use of it in its bilateral dialogue with Europe. And we will get a new strategic partner in the gas business," Miller said.
"Turkey is a very dynamically developing gas market, it will move from the third to the second place following Germany by the end of 2014 in terms of the volume of our supplies. Turkey is becoming a transit country, and it's going to be a major transit country, through which over 50 billion cubic meters of gas will be transported, which certainly elevates Turkey's geopolitical status in the region. Turkey in fact becomes another gas distributing hub in the south, similarly to what Germany is in the north and what Ukraine used to be in the center," he said.
"Gazprom unsuccessfully discussed its possible participation in the Ukrainian pipe. What can't be cured must be endured, but we have definitely made a final decision for ourselves on creating alternative routes, first the Nord Stream and then the South Stream, but now it's a new project, a gas pipeline along the Black Sea floor toward Turkey. In fact, Ukraine's role as a transit country has come to naught. Supplies to Europe will go along alternative routes," Miller said.
"As for the amounts that Ukraine needs for internal consumption, we will ensure them," he said.
