September 23 (SeeNews) - Romanian gas pipeline operator Transgaz [BSE:TGN] has called a tender for capacity at its border with Bulgaria for October.
Transgaz will award 95.82 GWh per day of interruptible, unbundled import capacity at the Negru Voda border point in Romania, through Hungary's Regional Booking Platform (RBP). The auction is scheduled for September 26.
Transgaz held its first ever auction for annual firm capacity at the Negru-Voda - Kardam interconnection point on September 5, following the expiry of two long-term contracts with Russia's Gazprom, which referred to the Romanian-Bulgarian and Romanian-Ukrainian interconnection points.
September 5 capacities were awarded to Bulgaria’s incumbent Bulgargaz, Gazprom’s WIIE Romania and Romanian gas and power trader Transenergo, data from Transgaz website showed.
So far, this has been the only successful auction, as the ones that followed failed to draw interest and no capacities were allocated, data from the RBP platform showed.
In July, Transgaz signed interconnection agreements for a back-up gas link under the Danube river, with Bulgarian and Ukrainian gas transmission system operators. According to the agreement, companies which win auctions for capacities at the Romanian-Bulgarian border will be implicitly allowed similar capacity volumes at the Romanian-Ukrainian interconnection point, Isaccea 1 – Orlovka.
Thus, the winning companies of the September 26 auction will also be awarded corresponding capacity at the Romania-Ukraine Isaccea 1 point.
All capacities awarded in auctions will be available for the start of the gas year 2016/17 on October 1.
Transgaz is a component of the blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest bourse. Its shares traded 0.66% lower at 301 lei at 1429 CET on Friday.
(1 euro = 4.4470 Romanian lei)