Russian gas deliveries in the first eight months of 2017 were up by 22.3% year-on-year to Turkey, by 14.3% to Greece, by 36.7% to Serbia, by 10.1% to Bulgaria, and by 26.6% to Hungary, according to a Gazprom report published by MTI.

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

Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on building a pipeline bypassing Ukraine in October 2016. Construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline has begun, with Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary also having joined the project, according to Budapest Business Journal.

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in July this year that the new delivery route could be completed by the end of 2019, and would be able to deliver 8 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Hungary, via Serbia. Hungaryʼs annual gas consumption is around 9 billion cubic meters.

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