Turkey’s government announced its plans to enlarge the Russian gas purchase through the Blue Stream pipeline. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Monday from Ankara, "We agreed with Russia on increasing capacity of the Blue Stream gas pipeline by 3 billion cubic meters to 19 billion cubic meters per year." Russian energy company Gazprom considers Turkey to be its second-largest energy importer. Taner Yildiz noted that the Turkish and Russian parties have already reached an accord on the Blue Stream expansion by 18%. Thus, Gazprom has to develop the coastal infrastructure of the gas pipeline on the Black Sea shore. Currently, the parties are discussing new contracts for the Russian gas delivery to the private sector at "a reasonable price". Importantly, the revision of gas contracts with Turkey is a long-awaited deal, but not a response to the Western economic sanctions. In April 2013, the Turkish energy minister requested Russia to enhance the capacity of the pipeline delivering the Russian gas to Turkey along the Black Sea bottom. So, Turkey aims to secure the national economy against a possible halt of deliveries via the overland gas pipeline running through Ukraine. Turkey draws about 12.5% of gas from that source. Meanwhile, Russia is searching for alternative sales markets. Thus, amid fears of further economic sanctions, the zooming demand for gas in Turkey might offset some losses. Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz insists on the price revision taking into account rising gas supplies. Moreover, Turkey is ready to permit Russia to re-route the Southern Stream pipeline in its territory. For the reference, design output of the Blue Stream pipeline constructed over ten years ago makes 16 billion cubic meter of gas a year. However, the actual annual volume of gas supplies does not always correspond to the pipeline capacity. So, in 2012, Turkey received 14.7 billion cubic meters, in 2013 — just 13.7 billion. The remaining volume disappeared when passing through Ukraine.