Greece expected to sign a memorandum on Turkish Stream during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which will be held June 18-20.

Russia's Gazprom plans to start building a pipeline to Turkey this month to get gas to Europe without going through Ukraine, company sources said, although it has no firm agreement with Ankara and faces opposition from the European Union.

Greece's energy minister has discussed in Moscow the construction of a pipeline that will transport Russian gas to Europe through its territory, the Greek energy ministry said on Saturday.

Russian energy company Gazprom has made it clear that it intends to move forward with the construction of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline as quickly as possible, whether or not the project can overcome political obstacles in Europe.

Gazprom has switched to the stage of building the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline intended to bring Russian natural gas to Europe via Turkey, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said on Friday.

Last December Moscow took Europe by surprise with an announcement that South Stream, a 63 billion cubic metre (bcm) pipeline designed to bring Russian natural gas to southern Europe across the Black Sea would be scrapped and replaced with a pipeline of similar capacity that would cross Turkey and stop at its border with Greece.

Russia’s gas giant Gazprom is ready to launch gas supplies to China via the so-called eastern corridor within 4 years, Deputy Chairman of Management Committee Alexander Medvedev said Wednesday.

Russia is pushing ahead with plans to build a pipeline to Turkey and further on to Greecevia the Black Sea, in line with its plans to stop exporting gas via Ukraine by 2019.

On March 16, the presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia travelled to Kars in Turkey’s mountainous northeast, and then to a remote worksite near the border with Georgia, to launch construction of the 1,850km Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (Tanap).

Athens expects to agree to take part in a pipeline that would bring Russian gas to Europe via its territory, Greece's energy minister said on Friday, estimating the project would cost 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion).