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Progress stalled on Russia's pipeline through Turkey

The project to pump gas from Russia to Europe via the Black Sea and Turkey has not broken ground despite plans for completion by 2019.
A worker checks the valve gears of pipes linked to oil tanks at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), some 70 km (43.5 miles) from Adana February 19, 2014. Crude oil flow through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline linking Iraq to Turkey restarted on Wednesday at a rate of at a rate of about 300,000-350,000 barrels per day (bpd), a Turkish energy official said. The pipeline, which carries Kirkuk crude to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, was d
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During a visit to Turkey on Dec. 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the cancellation of the South Stream project to carry Russian natural gas to Europe via Bulgaria. Instead, he said, a pipeline would be build under the Black Sea and via Turkey. The European Commission had delayed approval of the South Stream project as part of sanctions against Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. Without the commission's approval, Bulgaria declared South Stream could not cross its territory. Russia, upset with the Europeans' position, responded with the Turkey Stream project.

Putin's move surprised the Europeans. Federica Mogherini, EU foreign affairs and security policy chief, declared on Euronews TV that the Russian decision illustrated the urgent need for Europe to diversify its gas procurement channels. The scrapped project was to have been 3,600 kilometers (2,237 miles) long and would have transported gas to Croatia, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia.

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