Work on expanding the Turkish Stream pipeline to Serbia should be completed in the coming weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin explained this at a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić.

Putin said: "Serbia has been connected to the gas pipeline network, which is an extension of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline".

Putin also recalled that an agreement had been reached between Moscow and Belgrade to increase Serbian gas storage capacity at Serbian facilities from 750 million cubic meters to two billion cubic meters.

The Russian President stressed: "We have no doubt that the implementation of these major energy projects will help to significantly strengthen energy security not only in Serbia, but also for the whole Balkan region and Europe as a whole".

The Turkish Stream project, which was approved by Moscow and Ankara three years ago, consists of two pipelines with an annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters. The first pipeline will supply Russian natural gas directly to Turkey, the second will extend to the border between Turkey and the EU to reach EU customers. The first deliveries of gas from Russia via the pipeline are already planned for the end of this year.

The Russian energy group Gazprom began filling the first branch of the offshore part of the pipeline with gas in October. The Turkish Stream project was created as an alternative to the South Stream route through Bulgaria - a project that Sofia had abandoned under pressure from the EU and the USA.