“For Romania, the most important infrastructure project in the natural gas sector is the Dobrogea-Podisor pipeline, which will transport gas from the Black Sea to the national gas transport system. It is a EUR230 million project we hope to complete with financial support from the European Commission,” Nicolescu told MEDIAFAX after Russia announced it was halting the EUR40 billion South Stream pipeline project.
OMV Petrom and ExxonMobil discovered in 2012 a gas deposit in the Black Sea estimated at 42-84 billion cubic meters. Production is set to start towards the end of the decade.
At the end of last week, Slovakia put forward the idea of a new gas transport route to southeast Europe, an alternative to South Stream. Slovakia’s Eastring would have an annual transport capacity of up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas and would cross Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Eastring would be 570 km long and cost EUR750 million to build.
Romania supported the construction of the Nabucco pipeline project until 2012, when the project was abandoned.