National natural gases carrier Transgaz Medias will invest around 23.1 million euros in two projects to link towns in southern and south-western Romania to the natural gas supply network, according to the Economy and Trade Ministry.
One of the projects is a 10.2 million euro investment, which involves taking the gas network to towns in southern Romania, such as Alexandria and Zimnicea. The project should be completed by July next year.
The 78 km long pipeline network will carry natural gases to any town between the two points.
Another project targets linking towns in Mehedinti County, including Drobeta Turnu Severin, to the gas network. The project is worth 12.9 million euros and is scheduled for completion in October 2005.
Transgaz Medias has a natural gas transport infrastructure made up of approximately 11,000 km of large pipes (150 - 800 mm in diameter). The company can transport about 40 billion cubic meters a year through its network.
The state-owned carrier transported more than 28 billion cubic metres of natural gases in 2003, with the related revenues reaching some $500 million, according to the estimates of ministry representatives. The transit of natural gases from Russia to Romania stood at 18 billion cubic metres in 2001.
Russian gases transiting Romania usually go to Greece and Turkey.
Last year's statistics show the amount of natural gases that transit Transgaz's ducts are over five times higher than the amount of gas actually used domestically (only 5.4 billion cubic metres).
Transgaz Medias is one of the biggest companies in Romania, having logged 20 million euros net profit and 196.6 million euros in turnover during 2003.
In order to boost the transit capacity of Romania and the wider Central European region, Transgaz will carry out a project with Botas (Turkey), Bulgargas (Bulgaria), MOL (Hungary) and OMV (Austria). The project, named Nabucco, will construct a gas pipeline valued at about one billion dollars.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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