Russia’s natural gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline system will likely not be restored and could be redirected in pipelines via the Black Sea to Turkey. 

Russian energy giant Gazprom PJSC CEO Alexei Miller told Russian television on Sunday that NatGas supplies via Nord Stream will be redirected to Turkey if the necessary infrastructure is constructed. He said, “You know, nothing’s impossible”: 

South Stream was a project that began construction in 2012 but was canceled in 2014 due to European sanctions and restrictions by Brussels. The $20 billion, 1,500-mile-long pipeline network would’ve been able to transit 63 billion cubic meters of NatGas per year via the Black Sea to Bulgaria. It was eventually replaced by TurkStream, which became operational in 2020. 

Last week, Miller spoke at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow, where he said there was no urgency in fixing the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines after the bombings. He said repairs could take years. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin was also at the forum last week and said:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin met later in the week to discuss a new Black Sea pipeline using Turkey to export NatGas into Europe.  

Last week, Miller said pipelines in the Black Sea are less vulnerable to “terrorist acts” than those in the Baltic Sea. 

Turkey’s Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said last week that additional NatGas links toward Turkey from Russia and a trading hub on the EU-Turkish border could be “technically possible.”