Just before Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Hungary yesterday, Russian Vice President Yury Ushakov underscored that Hungary may also participate in the TurkStream project that will carry Russian natural gas to Europe via the Turkish-Greek border.

Ushakov gave the details concerning the visit by Putin to the Hungarian capital Budapest, where Putin will meet Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban. Ushakov said that cooperation in the NordStream and TurkStream projects will occupy the agenda of the meeting.

According to Sputnik News, Ushakov said: "Russia and Hungary have good opportunities to cooperate in the oil and gas industry, 75 percent of Hungary's oil and 60 percent of gas are supplied from Russia. In this context, our Hungarian partners can also participate in the new shipping lines in the NordStream and TurkStream projects that Gazprom is working on." Ushakov also added that they are working on Gazprom's new shipping routes in the NordStream and TurkStream projects.

The project, announced by Putin during a December 2014 visit to Turkey, will carry gas from Russia under the Black Sea to the Turkish Thrace. Estimated to have a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters through the two lines, the project's first and second lines will transfer Russian natural gas to Turkey and European countries, respectively. The project involves two more pipelines which will increase the capacity to 63 billion cubic meters. In October, Alexey Miller, chairman of Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, announced that the construction of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline project will kick off in 2018.