Bulgaria, Romania launch joint tender to complete gas link
20/03/2015 13:28
SOFIA, March 20 (Reuters) - Bulgaria launched a joint tender
with Romania to complete the much-delayed gas interconnector
between the Balkan neighbours, the state owned gas network
operator Bulgartransgaz said.
The Black Sea state, which gets more than 90 percent of its
gas from Gazprom GAZP.MM through one route, has stepped up
efforts to connect its gas network to neighbours after Moscow
cancelled its South Stream pipeline project.
"The Bulgaria-Romania gas interconnector is expected to be
operational this year," Bulgartransgaz's spokesman told Reuters
on Friday.
The reverse flow interconnection is 25 km long, of which
15.4 km is in Bulgarian territory and 7.5 km in Romania.
Bulgartransgaz said that Romania's state-owned gas pipeline
operator Transgaz ROTGN.BX authorised the Bulgarian company to
start a joint public procurement for the construction of the 2.1
km gas Danube pipeline undercrossing.
Works on the 24 million euros ($25.69 million) pipeline
began in 2012. According to the initial plan, the interconnector
should have been ready in 2013, but the deadline was pushed back
due to technical difficulties.
The pipeline will have a maximum transport capacity of 1.5
billion cubic metres of gas per year from Bulgaria, which hopes
to become a gas distribution hub for Europe ID:nL6N0TW2NL , to
Romania. The capacity from Romania to Bulgaria will be 500
million cubic metres per year.
Earlier this month, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov
said the Black Sea state wants the European Commission to revive
plans for the Nabucco pipeline that would pump gas from the
Caspian Sea, after the South Stream pipeline, seen as a rival
was scrapped. ID:nL5N0W61T5
Bulgaria expects that EU will fund the gas interconnector
with Greece, Borisov said on Friday.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said Bulgaria could build an
interconnector with Greece to draw gas from the The
Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) route, which could then be sent on
to Romania and Hungary.
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
((angel.krasimirov@thomsonreuters.com; +359 887 988 196;
Reuters Messaging: Reuters Messaging:
angel.krasimirov.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: BULGARIA ROMANIA/GAS