Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said that Russia is ready to ensure additional gas supplies to southeastern Europe, including in case of consumers' interest in the stalled Turkish Stream gas pipeline project.

"Southeastern Europe has the requirement for additional natural gas deliveries and reliable energy provision.Russia is ready to supply the required amount of natural gas as we have the resources and we are competitive," TASS quoted Novak as saying to reporters in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

According to Novak, if there is interest from European consumers in the development of gas transmission infrastructure across the Black Sea and across the countries adjacent to the Black Sea to Europe,” Russia would cooperate.

Moscow suspended talks with Ankara on the Turkish Stream project in December last year following the downing of a Russian warplane near Turkey’s border with Syria by the Turkish Air Force.

Novak spoke a day after the Kremlin announced that it had received a letter of apology from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the downing of the Russian Su-24 fighter bomber in November last year.

Following Erdogan’s apology, Gazprom said on Monday that it was ready for a dialogue on a potential resumption of Turkish Stream.