BUCHAREST (Romania), July 8 (SeeNews) – Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has said that the Greece-Bulgaria gas pipeline, which is due to be operational on Friday, will allow Romania to supply gas to Ukraine and Moldova.

The 220 million euro ($225 million) and 182 kilometer gas link connects the Greek gas transmission network in the Komotini region with the Bulgarian gas network in the Stara Zagora region.

“Basically, this interconnector will ensure the connection between the network passing through Anatolia and the Adriatic and also connects to the BRUA gas pipeline, thus giving coherence to the vertical corridor and ensuring the gas supply to Bulgaria and Romania. Of course, then we will be able to ensure the gas supply to our eastern partners, Ukraine and Moldova, as well as to the other countries that are on the network of the distribution map,” Ciuca told a conference of press Thursday.

At the end of June, Ciuca declared that Romania will fill its natural gas reserves to 80% of its storage capacity by November 1, compared to 40% currently, in accordance with recent European regulations.

At the end of May, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis approved a new bill supposed to accelerate the development of major offshore oil and gas projects in the Black Sea. In mid-June, Romania-based BSOG announced that production had started from the MGD project and the first quantities of gas had been delivered to the national transmission network.

Romania hopes to start exporting natural gas from the Neptun Deep offshore project in the Black Sea in 2027, Ciuca said in April.

In May, local natural gas producer Romgaz signed a deal to acquire Exxon Mobil’s 50% stake in Neptun Deep for $1.06 billion. The other half of the rights and obligations under the concession are held by the Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom.

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OMV Petrom SA is one of the largest companies in SEE, for more reference take a look at the top 100 companies

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