Russian gas deliveries in the first eight months were up by an annual 22.3 percent to Turkey, went up by 14.3 percent to Greece, by 36.7 percent to Serbia, by 10.1 percent to Bulgaria and by 26.6 percent to Hungary, Gazprom reported over the weekend.

Overall, Gazprom exports rose by 12.1 percent in the first eight months to 126.3 billion cubic metres, CEO Alexey Miller told a business forum in Moscow last week.

ssia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on building a pipeline bypassing Ukraine in October 2016. Construction of the Turkish Stream has started and Bulgaria and Serbia has already signed the necessary agreement on the pipeline, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in July this year when he signed an agreement with Miller on developments in Hungary related to Turkish Stream.

Szijjártó said that month that the new delivery route could be completed by the end of 2019, and would be able to deliver 8 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Hungary, via Serbia. Hungary’s annual gas consumption is around 9 billion cubic metres.

Turkish Stream would run partway along the path of the South Stream pipeline, the plan of which was scrapped in 2014. The pipeline would have delivered Russian gas to Europe via the Black Sea, also bypassing Ukraine.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.