Slovakian pipeline operator Eustream said on Wednesday it expects to sign shortly a memorandum of understanding with its Romanian and Bulgarian counterparts on plans for a gas pipeline that would help diversify the supply routes to the Balkan region.
The so called Eastring pipeline, conceived as an alternative to the now defunct South Stream, should secure natural gas supply to fully meet the consumption needs of all Balkan countries.
The final wording of the paperwork is currently being worked out, a spokesperson for Eustream told SeeNews over the phone.
Eastring would provide Western gas shippers with a possibility to supply Balkan countries and even Turkey from European hubs such as NetConnect Germany, Gaspool, Baumgarten, and the Dutch-based Title Transfer Facility, official project data indicated.
In January, Eustream director general Rastislav Nukovic told SeeNews in an interview that the proposed bidirectional pipeline – with ultimate capacity seen at 40 billion cu m per year - will require capital investment costs of between 750 million euro ($807 million) and 1.2 billion euro, depending on the length of the route.
Funding is planned to be sought from commercial and multi-lateral lenders and the EU, among other sources, the official said at the time.
In December, Gazprom and Turkey’s Botas signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of an offshore gas pipeline that will have a capacity of 63 billion cu m.
The move followed the announcement that Russia was abandoning plans to build the South Stream, a gas pipeline project that would have opened up a supply route to Southeast Europe that bypasses Ukraine and is less at risk of disruption.
Eastring will start at an existing compressor station in Velke Kapusany in Slovakia, where it should connect with Eustream’s existing gas transit assets serving to supply mainly Western Europe as well as Ukraine in reverse flow, official project data indicated. From there, Eastring will aim to the south border with Hungary, crossing the north-east territory of Hungary in a U-shape towards the Romanian borders.
In this initial phase there are two routing options suggested in Romania and Bulgaria.
The first route option passes through storage and production facilities in Transylvania and continues to the existing interconnection point Isaccea where it connects to the existing transit infrastructure which runs through the Romanian-Bulgarian border at Negru Voda and then onwards from north-east to south-east along the existing Bulgarian gas transit assets to tie into the Turkish gas transit network at Malkoclar.
The second route option passes through both storage areas and production facilities, Bucharest and continues to the Romanian-Bulgarian border and then onwards straight to the Turkish border at Malkoclar.
According the first simulations, Eastring will be approximately 832–1,015 km in length, depending on the chosen route. However, the pipeline routing is still not final and it will be further refined in all countries.