Romania, Bulgaria to increase energy interconnection

BUCHAREST, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Romania and Bulgaria are cooperating on the Balkans gas hub, with works on the gas interconnector between the two countries expected to be started in June, visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said Friday.

"I hope we'll make the first dig for the Romania-Bulgaria gas interconnector in June ... We have a certain interconnection with Romania, (and) we must have reversible compression stations," Borissov told a joint press conference after meeting with his Romanian counterpart Viorica Dancila.

Dancila also voiced her belief that the Giurgiu-Ruse gas pipeline, inaugurated in November 2016, will become operational at maximum capacity by completing the works at the natural gas compressor in Podisor in the assumed deadline of 2019.

The two prime ministers stressed their strong support for the BRUA project, an interconnection project in southern Europe linking Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria and for the vertical corridor connecting the gas grids of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, able to ensure access to a wide range of resources to the two countries and the Central European region.

"Bulgaria, Romania, Greece have to prepare with their highways to transport gas in different directions," said the Bulgarian prime minister.

"We agreed to provide additional dynamism to joint projects and actions in priority areas of cooperation such as connectivity," said Dancila.

A new quadrilateral meeting involving Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia is scheduled later in the day, with prime ministers of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, as well as Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic expected to attend. Enditem