The Regulatory Committee of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) will approve on Friday the proposal to start the tender for contracting the transport capacity on the Romania-Hungary direction, within the BRUA project, said Emil Calotă, the vice-president of the authority, at the press conference organized by energynomics.ro. “We have planned an extraordinary meeting of the Regulatory Committee at 15:00 to endorse the Transgaz proposal made with the Hungarian carrier to launch the tender for contracting the transport capacity on the Romania-Hungary direction. We have the Open Season rulebook for the transport capacity for the entire Romanian-Hungary-Austria section. Now it is the first step, in which we see how the concerned parties manifest their interest on the Romania-Hungary direction. I am convinced that the Hungary-Austria component will follow in 2018”, said Calotă.
The ANRE official specified that the deadline for finalizing the approval of Open Season rulebook is July 31st.
The European Commission’s commitments to the BRUA project remain firm, and the bilateral talks with the representatives of Romania and Hungary are moving towards an equally solid project continuation, also said Calotă. “We have no cause for concern”, said Calota.
Recently, the Romanian gas carrier, Transgaz, announced that BRUA will no longer cross Hungary, the operator of the gas system in the country, FGSZ, proposing that the gas volumes coming from Romania to be distributed from Hungary to Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia or Serbia.
Transgaz mentioned that on July 18th, 2017, it received a letter from Hungary’s national operator of the natural gas transmission system, regarding the binding open season procedure, planned to be deployed for the allocation of capacities for the Romania-Hungary-Austria gas transport corridor. “We have been informed that FGSZ cannot carry out the planned procedure due to the lack of the required approval from the company’s Supervisory Board, motivated by economic efficiency issues. The Hungarian side proposed instead the conducting of the binding open season procedure, only for the RO-HU interconnection point, and the gas volume of 4,4 billion mc/year, coming from Romania to be distributed from Hungary to Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia or Serbia. In parallel, FGSZ would continue to talk with the Austrian gas carrier (Gas Connect) to further identify physical transport possibilities from Hungary to Austria”, announced the representatives of Transgaz.
In the context of the described situation and by analyzing this proposal, Transgaz informed the shareholders and the potential regional investors that, from the company’s perspective, the objectives and projects undertaken regarding the BRUA infrastructure development in Romania remain unaffected.
The BRUA project is being developed in the context of the diversification of Europe’s natural gas supply sources, increasing the security of Romania’s natural gas supply through access to new sources, and facilitating the Central and South-Eastern European market access to the Caspian region’s natural gas resources. Through the project, there will be ensured: a two-way transport capacity of 1,5 billion mc/year – on the direction of Bulgaria, respectively a transport capacity of 1,75 billion mc/year – on the direction of Hungary in Phase I and of 4,4 billion mc/year in Phase II.
Currently, Transgaz is in the process of implementing the Phase I of the project, also benefiting from financial support from the European Union.
The new gas pipeline would have a total length of 550 kilometers. Transgaz has received 179 million euros from the European Commission for this project.