October 20 (SeeNews) - Austria's Habau, the company leading the construction of the section of the gas interconnector Bulgaria-Romania under the Danube river, said on Thursday that the project will be completed next month.
"We have successfully managed to install the first pipeline and we expect that in the middle of November both pipelines will be operational," Karl Leidenfrost, Habau managing director for Romania said at the fourth annual Black Sea Oil and Gas conference taking place in Sofia.
In April, gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz signed a contract with Habau PPS Pipeline Systems for the completion of the 2.1 km underwater section of the interconnection with Romania.
In May, Bulgartransgaz said that, alongside Romania's Тransgaz, it signed a contract with a consortium consisting of Austria's Habau and Romania's Inspet for the construction of a back-up gas pipeline link between the two countries, also under the Danube river.
The gas link will connect the southern Romanian village of Comasca with Marten, in northern Bulgaria. The projected maximum capacity of the pipeline will be 1.5 billion cubic metres a year.
The total cost of the whole 25-km Bulgaria-Romania gas link is estimated at 24 million euro ($26.2 million). The project is co-financed with 13.3 million euro in EU funds.
Bulgaria imports about 90% of the natural gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. In a bid to diversify its gas sources, over the past few years the country has stepped up the construction of gas interconnectors with its neighbours.
($=0.9154 euro)