Moscow, (IINA) : The final touches to an agreement to pipe Russian natural gas through Turkey will be completed when Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Monday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.

“All of us aim to finalize the works on this intergovernmental agreement right by the meeting of Mr. President Putin and Mr. President Erdogan on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress,” Novak was quoted by the Anadolu Agency.

The project, announced by Putin during a December 2014 visit to Turkey, will carry gas from Russia under the Black Sea to Turkish Thrace. One line, with a 15.75 billion cubic meters capacity, is expected to supply the Turkish market with a second carrying gas to Europe.

Negotiation over the pipeline was halted after Turkey shot down a Russian jet over the Turkey-Syria border in November last year but has since resumed. Last month, Gazprom said construction could start by the end of 2017 if an intergovernmental agreement was signed in October, with the goal of completing the pipeline by 2019.