Simferopol - The new gas pipeline Russia plans to build to Turkey in place of the South Stream pipeline will include a branch line to Crimea, Crimean fuel and energy minister Sergei Yegorov said.
“The gas pipeline will connect to the planned gas pipeline to Turkey in Krasnodar territory. This was to be the South Stream pipeline previously,” Yegorov said at a meeting of the Crimean Cabinet on Dec. 9.
The 135-kilometer branch will cross under the Kerch Strait. Construction of the trunk pipeline is expected to be completed in 2018.
Chornomornaftogaz said previously that the pipeline would have capacity to ship 2 billion cubic meters of gas a year and would connect to the existing Dzhankoi-Feodosia-Kerch gas pipeline.
