Hungary is currently planning to begin the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline in the spring of 2016, media sources say.
Budapest hopes to complete its South Stream section if it manages to meet that deadline, Csaba Baji, the head of power company MVM which controls 50% of the joint venture managing the Hungarian stretch, told the daily Napi Gazdasag cited by Russia's ITAR-TASS.
South Stream is to deliver 63 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to Europe when constructed.
It is unclear when the pipeline can become operational, since construction is frozen in Bulgaria at the behest of the previous Bulgarian government, which was warned by the EU Commission it should halt all activities.
The EU and Gazprom are at odds over South Stream's compatibility with Europe's Third Energy Package and other issues.