The agreement is set to be signed by the Russian and Turkish prime ministers, Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, local news sources have said.

Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller said “We see a large interest being displayed by countries that are not yet participating in the project.”

The pipeline will run from Russia, 900 km under the Black Sea to the Bulgarian coast, where it will then split into two branches.

The south branch will run through Bulgaria and Greece, and then a subsea portion will reach Italy. The second branch will divert northward through Serbia and Hungary to Austria.

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Previously, Eni and Gazprom agreed to increase the South Stream pipeline’s capacity to 63 Bcm/a from the initially-planned 31 Bcm/a.