Romanian gas transporter starts testing Iasi-Chisinau pipeline

Romania's natural gas transport system operator Transgaz started the technical tests on the Iasi - Ungheni - Chisinau gas pipeline that would facilitate the exports of Romanian natural gas to Moldova, G4media.ro reported.

The segment of the pipeline on Moldovan territory, Ungheni-Chisinau, has been built and will be operated by Vestmoldtransgaz - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transgaz registered in Moldova for this project.

The tests will last a few days. This is the last phase before the commissioning of the investment, which is the first real alternative for the Republic of Moldova to total dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia.

The full length of the pipeline is 120 km, and the gas will be delivered through three delivery stations: two in Chisinau and one in Ungheni.

The annual transport capacity is about 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

At this moment, there is no commercial contract for bringing Romanian gas to the Republic of Moldova, as no auction has been held in this sense.

(Photo: Transgaz.ro)