MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. Russia’s largest gas producer is ready to unfreeze the South Stream gas pipeline project within a short period of time in case the political environment changes, Gazprom Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Andrey Kruglov said Wednesday.

"The Russian side has created capacities for this project’s implementation. Currently they’re partially used for providing gas to consumers in Russia’s Krasnodar Region and the southern area while the rest of capacities have been frozen. In case the political situation changes and a decision is made to resume the project - either Turkish Stream or South Stream - they (the capacities) may be used for implementation within a short period of time," he said.

According to Kruglov, the talks on the South Stream financing may be resumed promptly.

"I’m confident that it won’t take much effort to resume all those talks that have already been held (on the South Stream - TASS) as in general all the participants and financial organizations as well as export agencies involved remained in place," he said.

Earlier Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Russia is ready to implement the South Stream project in case of Europe’s guaranteed demand.

On December 1, 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia abandoned the South Stream project due to the European Union’s insisting on its accordance to the so-called Third Energy Package, and was embarking on the Turkish Stream instead. On December 1, 2015 the Russian government suspended the work of the mixed intergovernmental Russian-Turkish commission on trade and economic cooperation, which was headed by Alexander Novak for the Russian side, and which intended to consider the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project. On December 3, Novak said the Turkish Stream construction project had been put on hold.

On December 1, 2014 the Russian gas producer Gazprom and the Turkish company Botas signed a memorandum of understanding on construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey via the Black Sea. The initial plan implied that the capacity of 4 lines of the pipeline would total 63 bln cubic meters of gas per year, of which 16 bln would be supplied to Turkey and 47 bln - to a new gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border.