ANTALYA, July 26. /TASS/. The second line of the export gas pipeline TurkStream will pass through the territory of Bulgaria, not Greece, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental commission.

"[The second thread of the TurkStream will go through] Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia. To Bulgaria directly," he reported.

Novak also recalled that gas supplies through the first line of the TurkStream pipeline will start on January 1, 2020.

The first line of TurkStream is intended to supply the domestic market of Turkey, the second — South and Southeast Europe. Gazprom considers Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary as potential markets. The capacity of each line is 15.75 bln cubic meters of gas per year.

In an interview with Anadolu news agency on Friday, the minister stated that throughput capacity of the TurkStream main gas pipeline can be expanded if the demand for Russian gas increases.

"We believe the Nord Stream 2 implementation is on track. Throughput capacity expansion of the TurkStream is possible," Novak noted.

Europe has high demand for natural gas as well as well-developed competition, the Minister pointed out. "We are ready to supply gas in required volume within the competition framework," Novak pledged.

TurkStream is a project for an export pipeline stretching from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea that will further extend to the Turkish border with adjacent countries.