File photo by actualno.com
Bulgarian gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz is to start the construction of a cross-border gas link with the country's northern neighbor Romania.
The company has already ordered technical equipment for the construction of the interconnector, according to LiveBiz.com.
The gas interconnector, which will cross the river Danube at Ruse/Giurgiu, is being developed jointly by Bulgartransgaz and its Romanian counterpart Transgaz.
Bulgaria's gas link with Romania is in the most advanced stage of development as compared to the country's gas links with Greece, Turkey and Serbia.
Bulgaria moved to link its natural gas grid to that of its neighbors after the January 2009 gas war between Russia and Ukraine, which cut off the Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria for full three weeks leaving it without natural gas in the middle of the winter. The gas crisis of 2009 exposed Bulgaria's almost 100% dependence on Russian natural gas.
In February 2011, the European Council decided that each EU member state should have at least two sources of natural gas and electricity by 2014 in order to avoid a repetition of the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis.