Romania's gas export capacity to Hungary, through the Arad-Szeged interconnector, will increase from 0.75 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year to 1.75 bcm per year as of December 1, Economica.net reported.

This increase includes the capacity envisaged under the first phase of the BRUA project, announced the Romanian natural gas transport system operator Transgaz.

Thus, technically, the export capacity through the interconnection point with Hungary will be over 17% of the domestic production, which is currently under 10 bcm per year.

In March this year, state-controlled gas transporter Transgaz promised to increase the transfer capacity to both Hungary and Bulgaria, to avoid a fine of up to 10% of its turnover from the European Commission.

In June 2017, the Commission announced it launched an official investigation procedure to assess whether Transgaz had violated EU antitrust rules by restricting natural gas exports.

(Photo: Mr.siwabud Veerapaisarn | Dreamstime.com)

andrei@romania-insider.com