In the longer term, Romanian gas demand would increase further as the country expects to shut down large coal-fired capacities
Bucharest, July 12 - Neftegaz.RU. 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, according to Romania Insider.
In contrast to the rapid development of the South Stream (Light) that bypasses Romania and transports
Russian gas, the delays in the completion of this interconnector prompted in Romania speculations related to Bulgaria favouring the spread of Russian gas in the region.
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.
Virgil Popescu wrote on his Facebook page:
- Today, 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 2 states, but also on future joint investment projects in the field of renewable energy (hydro and offshore wind), about increasing interconnection for electricity transmission
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
LNG from Greek ports could reach BRUA.
Author:
Andrei Chirileasa
