Gas interconnector between Romania and Bulgaria to be done by year's end

The gas interconnector pipeline between Romania and Bulgaria's towns of Giurgiu and Ruse, respectively, is expected to be completed by the end of this year, said on Tuesday the CEO of Bulgarian company Bulgartransgaz, Kiril Temelkov.

'The trend is to establish the Bulgartransgaz EAD and the services we provide on a regional principle. We expect soon to have foreign companies that to use the repository services in Bulgaria,' Telmenkov specified.

Works on the pipeline have begun in 2012. Initially, the interconnector should have been ready in 2013, but the deadline was pushed back to January 2014, and even later after technical difficulties occurred.

The Giurgiu-Ruse pipeline will have a total length of 25 kilometers, of which 15.4 kilometers on Bulgarian soil, 5.2 kilometers on Romanian soil, with 4.14 kilometers being designated as the subterranean crossing of the Danube river between the two countries. Furthermore, two measuring stations for the monitoring of technical parameters of natural gas are to be built.

The Giurgiu-Ruse pipeline will have a maximum transport capacity of 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Bulgaria to Romania, while the capacity from Romania to Bulgaria will be of 500 million cubic meters per year.

The total estimated value of the project is of 24 million euro, 8.9 million euro being ensured by the European Commission. Bulgarian company Bulgartransgaz's investment in the project amounts to 14 million euro, while Romanian company Transgaz's contribution is worth 10 million euro. AGERPRES