Romania may receive natural gas from Azerbaijan in 2022

The Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector will be completed so that the natural gas from Azerbaijan will reach Romania by July 2022, energy minister Virgil Popescu announced.

Report informs, citing Romanian media, that the interest for Romania related to the gas from Azerbaijan should, in principle, relate to the transport fees, under the optimistic scenario that the Black Sea offshore projects will eventually begin operations. Transgaz, the operator of the gas pipelines in Romania, already starts charging local consumers for the costs incurred with the BRUA pipeline (supposed to carry Azeri gas, among others) - while BRUA remains empty.

"Today (July 9), I had a working meeting with my counterpart in Bulgaria - energy minister Andrey Zhivkov, on the sidelines of participation in the Summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Sofia. The talks focused on future actions to strengthen bilateral relations between the two states, but also on future joint investment projects in the field of renewable energy (hydro and offshore wind), about increasing interconnection for electricity transmission," Popescu wrote on his Facebook page.

The minister said he had received assurances that the Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector would be completed by July 2022 so that the Vertical Corridor would be operational and Azerbaijani gas and liquefied natural gas from Greek ports could reach BRUA.

The Romanian-Bulgarian interconnector, as well as the BRUA project, will ensure the integration of natural gas sources from the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, the Middle East or Central Asia into Central and Western European markets.

BRUA will transport 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Hungary and 1.5 billion cubic meters to Bulgaria.

The total cost of construction of the 1,318 km gas pipeline in Romania amounted to 480 million euros. The European Union has provided a loan of 179 million euros and the European Investment Bank 50 million euros to construct the pipeline. Transgaz spent 149 million euros on the project.