Romania’s gas transporter plans EUR 1.5 bln investments for regional pipeline

Romania’s national gas transport company Transgaz Medias has a EUR 1.5 billion investment plan by 2023 that mainly focuses on transporting the natural gas the OMV Petrom and Exxon will extract from the Black Sea to Austria. The company’s priorities are to develop a gas transport pipeline from Romania’s southern border with Bulgaria to the western border with Hungary, with an estimated 550-kilometer length. The total investment is some EUR 560 million and should be ready by April 2019. This project, which is called the South Danubian corridor, aims to connect Bulgaria’s gas transport system with those of Romania, Hungary and Austria. The second part of this project is to connect the Black Sea shore with this regional corridor via a new 285-kilometer pipeline, which will cost some EUR 262 million. This investment too should be finalized in April 2019. Transgaz’ second project is a gas corridor through central Romania, which should take over the extra gas from the Black Sea. This second project should also connect to Moldova Republic. The total investments in this project are estimated at some EUR 654 million. Transgaz also plans to attract EU funds for some of the investments. The company increased its turnover by 9% last year, to EUR 364 million. The net profit surged by 52%, to EUR 116 million. Transgaz will distribute dividends worth EUR 58 million to its shareholders. The state holds 58.5% of Transgaz’ shares with the remaining 41.5% traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The company has a market capitalization of EUR 732 million. Romanian gas transporter plans to triple investments Romanian gas transporter pays an 8% dividend yield Andrei Chirilasa, andrei@romania-insider.com