Bulgaria Breaks Ground on Romanian Interconnector

Bulgaria has officially launched the construction of an interconnector, planned to connect the country to Romanian gas supply as well as other supplies in Central Europe.

The Bulgaria-Romania Interconnector, a 25 kilometre pipeline, will connect the gas systems of Bulgaria and Romania. The length of the pipeline will be spread to measure 15.4 kilometres in Bulgaria, 7.5 kilometres in Romania, with the final 2.1 kilometres running under the Danube river.

At the groundbreaking of the Bulgarian section of the pipeline yesterday, Bulgarian Minister for the Economy, Energy and Tourism said the interconnector would giving Bulgaria access to Romanian gas which may be in high supply given recent discoveries. The Khan Asparuh, in particular, a deepwater field in the Romanian Black Sea, was likely to have significant amounts of oil and gas, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said.

The interconnector would greatly increase Bulgaria's energy security, Minister Dobrev said yesterday, supplying about half of Bulgaria's annual needs at full pipeline capacity of 1.5 billion cubic metres.

The €23.8 million interconnector is jointly undertaken by Bulgaria's Bulgartransgaz and Romania's Transgaz.