MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ankara will ensure the distribution of Russian gas to Europe through the TurkStream pipeline, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

“Hopefully, we will distribute the natural gas coming from Russia through Turkiye to Europe as TurkStream,” Erdogan said during a keynote speech on the upcoming centennial of the republic, Turkish media reported.

TurkStream is an export gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea, with a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This is three times less than what four lines of Nord Stream 1 and 2 would have delivered. Before the October attacks, Nord Stream 1 carried 55 bcm of gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Erdogan said after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Kazakhstan in mid-October that the two countries would build a gas distribution center on the Turkish territory. This would offset the shortfall of Russian gas supplies to Northern Europe and turn Turkey into a European gas hub, replacing Germany.