EU Energy Supply: Russia and Turkey turn on EU gas pipeline

Russia and Turkey have turned on a new gas pipeline to the EU, continuing efforts to lock in Russia's best customer.

The TurkStream pipeline launch was "a very important event not only for Russia and Turkey, but also for the states of southern Europe, for the entire European continent", Russian president Vladimir Putin told press at a ceremony in Istanbul on Wednesday (8 January).

And European countries were "already expressing very great interest" in buying the gas, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Putin praised the pipeline as a feat of modern engineering.

"It is a high-tech project because the gas pipeline runs at tremendous depth, as well as in a very hostile environment," he said.

Erdogan said its symbolism recalled "Ottoman times", when tsars and sultans first built relations 500 years ago.

Read more  at: Russia and Turkey turn on EU gas pipeline

Nord Stream: Germany, EU decry US Nord Stream sanctions

Berlin and Brussels have criticized White House sanctions against companies involved in building a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany. They accused President Trump of interfering in national and bloc sovereignty.

Note EU- Digest: who made the US the master of all living things ?

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-eu-decry-us-nord-stream-sanctions/a-51759319

Enerpub: Bulgaria signs deal on new pipeline to Europe

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Bulgaria signs deal on new pipeline to Europe

Bulgaria has signed a deal with Moscow to join a major new pipeline project to bring Russian natural gas to Europe on the second day of a visit that Russian President Vladimir Putin used to lobby hard for the deal. The pipeline would deal a blow to European hopes of reducing dependence on Russia as an energy source amid fears in Brussels that Moscow is acquiring too much economic leverage over EU members. Speaking after the signing in Sofia, Putin said the deal will benefit European consumers by assuring new energy supplies. "I want to particularly stress that the construction of this new infrastructure does not mean a decrease in our cooperation with other transit countries," he said. "The creation of new routes ensures security, increases stability, and creates new transit capabilities for the growing supplies of energy resources to European consumers."

Naharnet Newsdesk - Turkey Punishes France for Recognizing Armenian Massacre

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Turkey Punishes France for Recognizing Armenian Massacre

Turkey, reacting to a French bill on the World War I massacre of Armenians, has suspended talks with Gaz de France (GDF) on the French firm's possible participation in a major pipeline project, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday. Turkey's energy ministry and the state-owned oil and gas company BOTAS, which is part of the Nabucco consortium building the pipeline, refused to comment on the report.

The five-company consortium plans to build a 3,300-kilometre (2,000-mile) pipeline that will carry natural gas from the Middle East and Central Asia to the European Union via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia. The other partners in the venture are Austria's oil and gas group OMV, Hungary's MOL, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.