Bulgaria says gas link with Romania to be completed in Autumn 2016

Bulgaria will have its gas interconnection with neigbouring Romania completed in the autumn, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova has said.

On 24 July Petkova and her Romanian counterpart Victor Vlad Grigorescu inspected the site of the construction of the underwater section of the gas link at Marten, in Ruse Region on the Bulgarian bank of the Danube.

"All activities are on schedule, thanks to the good coordination between the gas transmission operators of Bulgaria and Romania, Bulgartransgaz and Transgaz," Petkova said at the construction site, according to a press release from the Energy Ministry in Sofia.

The interconnector Bulgaria-Romania will provide an opportunity for diversification of sources and routes of gas supplies in southeastern Europe to fulfil one of the main priorities of the European Energy Union.

Vlad Grigorescu said the completion of the project wasn’t easy, but expressed confidence that there will be no delays to construction works.

Bulgaria-Romania interconnection has a total length of 25 kilometers, of which 15.4 kilometers of Bulgarian territory, 7.5 kilometers in Romania and 2.1 kilometers on the river bed.

Flows of natural gas between Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria will be tested by the end of 2016 under interconnection agreements signed by the grid operators of the three countries.