Turkey has sent a draft inter-governmental agreement to Russia on the proposed Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project—from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea—, and is awaiting a response.

The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Taner Yildiz, stated about the aforementioned.

Yildiz also said there had been an 8 percent drop in Russian gas sales to Turkey in the last 5-6 months.

The minister noted that the weakness of the Turkish lira has placed an extra 11 billion lira ($3.82 billion) burden on Turkey’s natural gas bill, the Gazeta.ru Russian news site reported citing Reuters news agency.

To note, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, and Hungary want for the Turkish Stream to reach Austria.