Romania to have Azerbaijani gas this autumn - Prime Minister

"We will have gas on the IGB (Interconnector Greece – Bulgaria)," most likely this autumn, following a period of testing and verification after the pipeline, which is expected to break the monopoly of Russian gas on the Bulgarian market, is constructed, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said at a meeting with Bulgarian counterpart Kiril Petkov, Report informs, citing the Bulgarian media.

The Romanian Prime Minister said the interruption of gas supply from Russia is a problem that affects not only Romania and Bulgaria but other countries in the region and Europe: "A regional meeting of Energy Ministers has been scheduled for May 5 in Sofia, which will include ministers from Azerbaijan and Turkiye, countries that have the potential to secure gas supplies."

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has said the gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Greece will be completed by June 30: "I am convinced that in June the works will be physically completed."

The Russian gas supplier Gazprom announced earlier on Wednesday that it was fully stopping its gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria due to the two European Union member states' "failure to pay in rubles".

At the end of March this year, it was announced that IGB had joined the TAP project, which will transport Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria for the first time. The IGB project is expected to be launched in July, as a result of which Bulgaria will be able to import gas directly from Azerbaijan. Initially, the pipeline will transport 1 billion cubic meters of gas a year, but later it is planned to increase the capacity to 3 billion cubic meters.

The IGB is designed to transport blue fuel from Shah Deniz 2 to Bulgaria. Through this pipeline, which will join TAP, Bulgaria will import 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Azerbaijan. Thus, the state company Bulgargaz EAD has signed a contract with the Shah Deniz consortium to purchase this amount of gas from the Shah Deniz-2 field. Azerbaijan will be able to meet 25-30% of Bulgaria's gas needs. Construction work on the IGB is expected to be completed in the second half of next year.

The 150 kilometres of the pipeline (182-kilometre in length) will pass through Bulgaria. The pipeline's annual capacity is estimated at 3-5 billion cubic meters.
As part of the Southern Gas Corridor development, the countries of South-Eastern and Central Europe will have the opportunity to import alternative supplies and liquefied natural gas from the Caspian region through the IGB.

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 the markets of Central and Western Europe.

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

The total cost of the 1,318-kilometer gas pipeline in Romania is 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 has spent 149 million euros on the project.