The operator of the national natural gas pipeline Transgaz (TGN) and Eustream, its Slovak counterpart, signed a memorandum of understanding „to investigate the opportunities to develop Eastring in Romania and Slovakia,” according to a TGN report sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE).
Eastring is a gas pipeline connecting the Western natural gas hubs to a hub near Varna port, which would connect Bulgaria (indirectly, Turkey), Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The project was launched in 2014 when Russia dropped Southstream.
Eastring is an alternative to Southstream, according to its own site.
So far, memorandums have been signed between Bulgaria and Slovakia, Hungary and Slovakia.
„The openness of Eustream towards developing the collaboration with Transgaz will bring favourable results for deepening and intensifying the regional cooperation by creating and harmonizing conditions for developing and integrating transport networks in the field of natural gas and energy in general”, said Ion Sterian, general manager of Transgaz (TGN), according to the quoted source.
Eastring has acquired the status of European project of common interest. „Its completion will allow the natural gas supplied from Western Europe to reach the Balkans and beyond, to Turkey,” said Pavol Kubik, Eustream’s spokesman in June 2016.
The pipeline will have a two-way functionality, with a total length between 744 kilometres and 1,015 kilometres (depending on the final route) and a capacity of 20 billion cubic meters per year and could become operational in 2018. It will cost about EUR 1.3 billion and would also take over resources from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East.
On the other hand, in July 2017, the Hungarian system operator, FGSZ, announced that it would no longer organize the capacity reservation session on the Hungarian section of the BRUA gas pipeline, which would virtually block the project that should connect Bulgaria to Austria and take over the reserves from the Black Sea.
The European Commission then reconfirmed its commitment to the BRUA project.
