The Tuzla – Podisor gas pipeline, which will fully take over the production from Neptun Deep, will become operational on July 1, 2025, announced, on Tuesday, the general director of Transgaz, Ion Sterian, during the Romanian International Gas Conference – RIGC 2023.
“If we did not invest in the gas transport infrastructure, today Romania would be in a less pleasant situation, maybe Hungary as well, considering what is happening in the geopolitical context, with a war on our borders, with another war that started a month ago … We continue to invest. We have one of the most modern transport infrastructures in Europe. We are somewhere at the quality level of 5-star infrastructure in terms of technology and in terms of the security of transport and operation of gas pipelines. What we promised when we signed in February the contract with the reservation of entry-exit capacity in the NTS, with the OMV Petrom and Romgaz consortium, and at the other celebration of the signing of the contract for the start of the works, we kept to work. We are on an accelerated schedule. The pipe ships started coming, the pipeline started to transport to the warehouses. The first welding will be done in a maximum of 8-10 days on the Tuzla – Podisor section, a gas pipeline that fully takes over the production from Neptun Deep. The discussions we have and the work schedule we have with the builders are that sometime at the end of next year we will complete the gas pipeline. There will be another 5-6 months of technological tests and according to the signed contract, on July 1, 2025, the gas pipeline will be operational. We have spare capacity on this gas pipeline which will be part of the gas transport corridor from the Caspian Sea area, to the Azerbaijan area, we hope from Turkmenistan as soon as possible,” said Sterian, according to Agerpres.
The head of Transgaz also mentioned the fact that the company he leads took over, in September of this year, the entire national gas transport system of the Republic of Moldova and that “everything is going on under normal conditions”.
“We have taken over in the Republic of Moldova the entire National Transport System in operation, since September 19. Everything is taking place under normal conditions, including Transnistria with gas transport for Transnistria, especially for the Cuciurgan power plant, which provides electricity for the area between the Dniester and the Prut, I mean Chisinau in the first place, with the electric current. We are still developing it,” said Ion Sterian.
The National Natural Gas Transport Company Transgaz signed, on June 16, 2023, the contract for the execution of the works for the Tuzla-Podisor gas pipeline, with the company Kalyon Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, from Turkey.
The project, worth approximately 500 million euros, consists in the construction of a 308.3 km long natural gas transport pipeline, which will connect the natural gas resources exploited in the Neptun Deep perimeter and the BRUA corridor, thus ensuring the possibility natural gas transport through the existing interconnections.
The pipeline is located in the south-eastern part of the country and crosses three counties (Constanța, Călăraşi and Giurgiu), respectively 42 territorial administrative units (UTAs).
The Oil and Gas Employers’ Federation (FPPG), under the high patronage of the Ministry of Energy, organizes the 6th edition of the event Romanian International Gas Conference – RIGC 2023, with the theme “Redefining security of supply. The potential of new technologies for a sustainable energy transition”.