At the gas pipeline's opening ceremony Vladimir Putin thanked people who worked on implementing this major project.
The President of Russia called launching Blue Stream one more step towards creating a common European energy space, strengthening the continent's energy security, and diversifying deliveries of crude energy to general consumers.
Vladimir Putin also talked about the possibility of constructing another branch of the Blue Stream gas pipeline under the Black Sea and establishing additional gas transit structures to deliver gas to southern Italy, southern Europe and to Israel.
The official opening ceremony for the Blue Stream Gas Pipeline that crosses under the Black Sea took place at the Durusu gas heating terminal.
At the terminal, the three heads of state met with Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, Alexei Miller, acting head of the Turkish company Botas, Riza Ciftci, and head of the Italian ENI group, Paolo Scaroni.
Alexei Miller showed Russian, Turkish and Italian leaders the control room of the Durusu gas heating terminal and a diagram showing the routes along which Russian gas will be exported. The head of Gazprom emphasized that once the Blue Stream project was implemented, risks associated with gas transport were actually reduced to a minimum since gas is directly sent from Russian to Turkish territory.