The gas interconnector link between Romania and Bulgaria will be fully functional in the second half of 2013, Romanian Deputy Economy Minister Rodin Traicu has announced.
Traicu has told ITAR-TASS that the gas link will be incorporated in the Nabucco gas pipeline project and would play a crucial role in securing the energy safety of Romania and Bulgaria.
Romanian and Bulgarian officials have agreed to speed up the construction of the interconnector, he has stated.
The construction of Bulgaria’s gas link with Romania was officially launched in August 2012.
Bulgaria moved to link its natural gas grid to those of Romania, Greece, Turkey and Serbia 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.
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.
