The construction of TurkStream project's gas receiving terminal in Kiyikoy, the end point of the offshore pipeline in Turkey, passed a 70 percent threshold, a penultimate step that marks the nearing of completion of the whole project, according to Asli Esen, the project's spokeswoman.
Esen told Anadolu Agency on Thursday in Berlin that the physical construction of the Kiyikoy receiving terminal, located approximately 100 kilometers west of Istanbul, is going on smoothly and the whole project will be finalized by the end of 2019, in line with the time schedule.
'We are totally confident that the pipeline will be commissioned by 2019 end, as we have foreseen in our project calendar,' she said.
A series of tests has already started for safety and integrity of whole natural gas pipeline system before pipelines start gas transmission by the end of 2019.
The landfall facility in Anapa, a port town on the Russian coast of Black Sea, has been completed successfully and is on standby, she said.
The above water tie-in (AWTI) procedures -- a process of welding the parts of pipelines already laid on the seabed, after being lifted onboard a special ship -- is also complete, the spokeswoman said.
AWTI has connected the landfall facility in Russia and the receiving terminal in Turkey end to end along with the offshore section, marking another crucial milestone in the project, Esen said.
The TurkStream project consists of two lines across the Black Sea, the first of which will serve Turkey with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters, while the second line is planned to serve Europe. Each pipeline is 930 kilometers in length, laid at depths reaching 2200 meters.
The project is the biggest-diameter offshore gas pipeline in the world laid at such depths. The deep sea pipe-laying was carried out by Pioneering Spirit, the world's biggest construction vessel.
By Baris Saglam in Berlin
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr