After the first gas flow started in January, Russian natural gas was delivered to consumers in Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia and Romania. Over 5.8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas was delivered to Europe from Turkey via the TurkStream gas pipeline in 2020.
The TurkStream natural gas pipeline was officially launched on 8 January, while commercial deliveries started on 1 January. The project emerged as an alternative for South Stream pipeline project which was cancelled in December 2014 due to non-compliance with EU legislation. The construction of TurkStream pipeline was agreed between Gazprom and Turkish state-owned gas company BOTAS in December 2014. New pipeline will be constructed under Black Sea towards western Turkey. Capacity of the pipeline will be some 63 billion cubic meters annually, where some 14 billion cubic meters (one line) would be supplied to Turkey and remaining amount to Greece-Turkey gas hub. From this hub, natural gas will be supplied to both Bulgaria and Greece. However, in October 2015 Gazprom halved the proposed capacity of TurkStream gas pipeline to 32 billion cubic meters of gas per year, while Turkey insisted on the construction of just one line, with the option for the second line in the future. The final agreement envisages the construction of two lines (one for gas supply directly to Turkey and the other for gas supply to Europe) with the capacity od 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year each.
