Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary sign memorandum in Bucharest, to complete the BRHA project

The BRHA (Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria) gas pipeline project will be completed by all four states involved, according to a memorandum of understanding signed in Bucharest on Thursday, Romanian Energy Minister Toma Petcu has told a press conference.

“We are in a very advanced phase with the BRHA project. We have issued the building permit, we have ongoing procedures for the assignment of the construction works, for the design part and the equipment part for the stations have already been signed and in December the contracts for the execution part are to be signed and pipeline purchase is to be completed,” Minister Petcu said.

According to him, it is very important that work orders are signed in December so that the works are ready by spring and the actual construction starts when the temperatures allow it.

“I wish BRHA to start at the same time in all four states, not only in Romania but also in Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria, and I would like it to be completed, both Phase I and Phase II, at the same time, otherwise the objective for which this gas pipeline has been approved and financed would not be achieved. All ministers and the European Commission have agreed upon this,” Toma Petcu said.

He stressed that all four states will complete Phase II of the project.

“In the memorandum we’ve signed today, all countries have agreed and clearly established that there will be a reverse-flow interconnection, i.e. in both directions, in all four states. Including between Hungary and Austria it has been established that this interconnection will be on reverse-flow, and Austria has committed to finalize Phase I, as are Hungary and Bulgaria, and for Phase II, all four countries have agreed that they will run this project and complete it in the established parameters,” the Romanian minister also said.

Transgaz informed in a press release in July that the BRHA gas pipeline will no longer cross Hungary, the operator of the gas transmission system in this country, FGSZ, proposing that the volume of gas coming from Romania to be distributed from Hungary to Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia or Serbia.