Not all foreign companies involved in the Turkish Stream project understand specifics of construction in Russia. But those who have experience working with the Russian companies know that state financing is likely to grow by leaps and bounds. The cost of the Sochi Olympics Games organization or the construction of Zenit Arena not only exceeded the initial budgets by several times but also surpassed, for example, NASA expenditures on the Mars exploration projects. That is why the following news surprised only the foreign partners of Russia.
The price of Turkish Stream has risen again, this time by $1 billion. The Turkish party was not impressed with this turn of events. Most likely, all additional costs will be paid by Gazprom, in other words, by Russian taxpayers. It was a bad idea since if Turkey agreed to take a part in financing increase, they could find out what the great and mighty Russian word - a kickback - means. In the meantime, Gazprom will reap all the benefits. “Previously, we said that the cost of the project is about $6 billion, now we estimate it somewhere around $7 billion. We do not exclude the possibility of project financing. But, given the current conditions, most likely Turkish Stream will be financed from the Gazprom budget,” Andrey Kruglov, the deputy chairman of Gazprom’s Management Board, said at investors’ meeting in London.
In addition, due to sanctions, Gazprom had to substantially increase investments in its projects. As a result, the construction cost of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline more than doubled, it increased from 93.6 billion to 190 billion rubles.