The Russian gas giant
Romgaz and Petrostar Ploiesti are a few steps away from inking an
agreement on the feasibility study at the Romanian gas deposit. The
company in charge of the deposit works, state-controlled Romgaz, gauges
that the investments in this deposit could amount to 500 million euros,
while its capacity could reach 2 billion cubic meters.
Romania lacks interconnecting pipes with its neighbors. The country has
only one such on-going project with Hungary - a pipe to be constructed
from Szeged to Arad. This should be finished by January 1 next year and
have a capacity of 4.4 billion cubic meters per year.
Also, plans to have links with Serbia and Ukraine are off because of the economic downturn, Rusu said.
At the beginning of the year Romania and its neighbors had to cope with
a shortage in gas consumption triggered by a several-day halt of
shipping from Russia via Ukraine, after the two had a dispute over the
transport price.