will redirect the pipes that have not yet been welded for the construction of the Southern Corridor Gazprom to expand the northern gas pipelines, through which gas will be supplied to two new lines of the Nord Stream. This was reported to Vedomosti by three people close to the pipe companies and confirmed by a Gazprom representative. According to him, about 380 km of pipes intended for the Eastern route of the Southern Corridor remained unused. It is expected that their transfer to the construction sites of the Ukhta – Torzhok 2 gas pipeline will begin by the end of the year and will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2016, the Gazprom representative added. One of Vedomosti’s interlocutors clarifies that we are talking about the transfer of 330,000 tons of pipes.

The Southern Corridor was intended to supply gas from Russia first to South Stream and then to Turkish. Four-line gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters. m along the bottom of the Black Sea, Gazprom was going to start building in the summer. But Russia and Türkiye never signed an intergovernmental agreement. In addition, Ankara agreed to discuss the construction of only one or two lines, while the Southern Corridor was being built for four.

The “Southern Corridor” consists of two routes – Western along the Ukrainian border and Eastern through the central and southern regions of Russia. For two lines of the Turkish Stream, one of them is enough. The western one is almost completed. Gazprom stopped the construction of Vostochny in the summer. Of the planned 1,625 km of this route, Gazprom has already managed to lay about 240 km of pipes in trenches and weld, two Vedomosti sources say.

This is about 180,000 tons of pipes. Gazprom does not disclose when and for how much the company bought them.

Based on the tender for the purchase of pipes announced on Wednesday, 1 ton of pipe now costs the concern 101,000 rubles. Thus, at current prices, Gazprom has 18 billion rubles worth of pipes laid in trenches. It will no longer be possible to use them, says one of the pipe makers. “They’ll lie down,” says a person close to Gazprom laconically.

Tender for the construction of 191.5 km of the “Southern Corridor” on the Western route worth 17.7 billion rubles. in 2014, Stroytransgaz won. Based on this price, laying 240 km on the Eastern route could cost 22 billion rubles. Thus, a total of about 40 billion rubles may be “buried.”

The total price of the Southern Corridor is 715 billion rubles. (in prices for January 2012), follows from Gazprom materials. In 2013–2014 253 billion rubles were spent on the project.

True, the 330,000 tons of pipes that Gazprom will transfer to the north would now cost it at least 33–35 billion rubles. But in fact, they cost him much less, so the company will be able to save money, says one of the pipe makers.

On Wednesday, Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller held a meeting in Ukhta on the construction of the Ukhta – Torzhok 2 gas pipeline. It is planned to supply gas from the Bovanenkovskoye field to Nord Stream 2. The length of Ukhta – Torzhok 2 will be 970 km. Thus, 40% of it will be built from pipes from the Southern Corridor.

In addition to transferring pipes from the Southern Corridor to Ukhta - Torzhok 2, the possibility of transferring pipes from the offshore part of the Turkish Stream to the construction of the offshore part of Nord Stream 2 was also discussed, says an official from the Ministry of Energy. Gazprom managed to conclude contracts for the production of pipes worth approximately 2 billion euros for two more lines of the South Stream, which they then decided to use for the construction of the Turkish. The pipes for the first line have already been produced and are in warehouses in the Bulgarian port of Burgas. About half of the pipes for the second line have already been produced by the Japanese Marubeni-Itochu and Sumitomo.

Theoretically, pipes for Turkish Stream can be used to expand Nord Stream. But this will be extremely ineffective, says one of the pipe makers. The Black Sea is deep, and pipes of small diameter and thick walls are needed there to withstand the pressure, he says. The depth of the Baltic Sea is much shallower - pipes of larger diameter and with less thick walls can be used there. That is why the throughput capacity of one Nord Stream line is 27.5 billion cubic meters. m, and the Turkish Stream - 15.5 billion cubic meters. m, the interlocutor concludes.

"Gazprom" needs a billion