Gas Flow via Bulgaria-Romania Link Hindered Until 2019

The flow of gas through the interconnector between Romania and Bulgaria will not be fully enabled for the next two years, outgoing Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said on Friday.

The lack of a compressor station on the Romanian side of the Danube (which serves as a natural border between the countries) impede the daily flow from Romania into Bulgaria, Petkova told lawmakers.

She added that Romanian authorities had assured both Sofia and Brussels they would speed up work.

Bulgaria could receive up to 4 million cubic meters of gas daily in the event of a crisis, she said.

The interconnector between Bulgaria and Romania, completed and officially inaugurated in November, has a capacity of 1 billion cubic meters annually.

No capacity has yet been booked, however, with the procedure due to begin next year.

Bulgaria is yet to build its interconnectors with Greece, Turkey and Serbia.