South Korea and Russia have reached a tentative agreement that the construction of a gas pipeline between the two nations via North Korea will begin in 2013 with the aim to have Russian gas flowing to the South by January 2017.

The head of the legal department of Russia’s energy company Gazprom, Nikolai Dubik, explained a road map for the gas pipeline project during the second round of the "Korea-Russia Dialogue" in Saint Petersburg Tuesday.

Dubik said under the agreement, Seoul and Moscow are scheduled to complete negotiations on basic terms and conditions on the project by January next year, sign an agreement between January and April, and produce a design for the pipeline by September 2013.

The two sides reportedly agreed to launch construction of the project in September 2013 as the design of the facility becomes available, and complete it by December 2016.

Russia’s state-run Gazprom and the South’s Korea Gas Corporation signed an agreement on the gas pipeline project in September of this year.