Slovakia Proposes Gas Interconnection to Romania and Bulgaria

Slovakia's gas pipeline operator Eurostream is proposing to Bulgaria and Romania to build an interconnection to reduce their dependence on Russian gas supplies, Reuters has reported.

According to supporters of the idea,the proposed 570-km interconnection pipeline would carry gas from Western hubs via Slovakia to Ukraine and then on to Romania and Bulgaria, helping to prevent the negative consequences of possible disruptions in Russian gas supplies via Ukraine.

Such discruptions have occurred several times in recent years, resulting in severe economic losses for Balkan countries that still rely heavily on gas supplies from Russia via a single route via Ukraine to meet their needs.

Reuters quoted Eurostream Chairman Tomas Marecek as saying on Wednesday he expected a memorandum of understanding on the proposal to be signed with counterparts in Romania and Bulgaria in the next two weeks.

A joint venture project worth between EUR 750 M and EUR 1.2 B is now being considered. Eurostream has already discussed it with Gaz de France and plans to discuss it with Austria’s OMV and big German companies, according to Marecek.

Under the project, Eurostream will use its existing pipelines to connect to Ukraine's Soyuz pipeline leading to the border with Romania. The proposed interconnection will have a potential capacity of up to 20 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

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