Mass media: Memorandum on construction of Eastring can be signed at Eastern Partnership's summit

Baku. 7 May. REPORT.AZ/ Memorandum of Understanding between the parties of the Eastring gas pipeline project, which can stretch from the Slovak-Ukrainian border through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria to Turkey's border with Bulgaria and Greece, will probably be signed in Riga on May 21-22 on the sidelines of the summit of Eastern Partnership.Report informs this was said by RIA Novosti citing a diplomatic source in Brussels.

According to media reports, the participating countries of Eastring will be Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

The initiator of Eastring acted Slovak company Eustream and it is planned that created consortium of participating companies building the future pipeline of the four countries will deal with financing of the project.Eustream also expect that European Union will support the project, in particular, European Investment Bank and commercial financial institutions.

The commercial launch of the Eastring pipeline scheduled for late 2018.Its capacity in the first phase of operation should reach 20 billion cubic meters a year, and then it will gradually be increased to 40 billion cubic meters a year.

The length of the pipeline will reach from 744 to 1015 km, depending on the route.Investment costs for the first phase of the project planned at a rate of 1.14 to 1.52 billion Euros.

According to European media reports, sources of raw materials for the future of the pipeline may be Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Cyprus and Russia.