Russian Energy Ministry

European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Šefčovič and Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak plan to meet in the autumn to discuss EU-Russia energy relations, including security of supply, a European Commission spokeswoman told New Europe.

Russia announced late on Dec. 16 that it had approved a bill to ratify the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project.        

The bill was passed by the Russian government and was sent to the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, the Kremlin said in a statement.        

Three-way talks involving the EU, Russia and Ukraine have ended with an agreement on the terms of gas supplies between October this year and March 2016, the EU Commission has said.

The construction of the first branch of the proposed Turkish Stream gas pipeline will cost EUR 4.3B, while the price of the four planned pipes will be EUR 11.4B, according to estimates of Russia's Gazprom.

Moscow has sent two offers to Ankara relating to the Turkish Stream project, apparently showing readiness to decouple the construction of a pipeline for gas deliveries to Turkey from the proposed pipes for transit of Russian gas to Europe.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on July 29 there was a risk construction of an underwater pipeline to Turkey could be delayed if a related intergovernmental agreement was not signed soon, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian Energy Ministry has sent a draft intergovernmental agreement on the "Turkish stream" project to the Turkish side, a source in the ministry told Russian news agency TASS on July 28.

According to the source, it was "an intergovernmental agreement on the project's first line with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters [bcm]," as reported by TASS.