Russian gas supplies have arrived in Slovakia - which had been cut off from previous routes when Kiev declined to extend the transit contract with Gazprom - via the TurkStream gas pipeline system, Slovakia's SPP gas company CEO Vojtech Ferenc told the country's Dennik N publication.

Supplies began on February 1 and are expected to double beginning in April.

SPP's contract with Gazprom Export is valid until 2034, and the buyer is not terminating it.

Dennik N also reports that SPP is establishing a subsidiary in Ukraine and obtaining a gas transportation license to transit gas from Russia.

Ferenc said that gas transportation along the new route would cost SPP 90 million euros more than through Ukraine.

TurkStream is an export gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey via the Black Sea. Throughput capacity totals 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the pipeline supplies gas to Turkey and the countries of Southern and Southeastern Europe in transit through Turkey.

TurkStream comprises two lines, with each one able to pump up to 15.75 bcm of gas per year.