In a surprising turn of events, on July 8, the Russian state-run natural gas monopoly Gazprom canceled a contract with the Italian oil and gas services group Saipem. The two companies were supposed to jointly build the first line of Turkish Stream, the Moscow-backed pipeline project to pump gas from Russia’s Black Sea coast to the Turkish-Greek border and then—in Moscow’s expectations—onward to Southern and Central Europe (Interfax, July 8; Corriere Della Sera, July 9).
Although Gazprom stressed that its decision was dictated by business and commercial disagreements with Saipem, evidence is emerging that the Italian energy company was the first …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation