The costs of transporting gas from the bills paid by citizens and industry might increase by 25-30%, as the investment in the BRUA gas pipeline must be amortized, and the pipeline risks remaining empty in the next period, wrote on Facebook Răzvan Nicolescu, expert in energy and a former Energy minister.

“This time BRUA 1 has been really completed. Transgaz has done a good job operationally in carrying out this project, without exceeding costs or major delays. The company has demonstrated a good ability to carry out complex projects in its field. It is not yet clear to me the impact of the investment for the Romanian economy – how much equipment and pipelines were produced locally,” Nicolescu said, according to Agerpres.

According to him, unfortunately Romania did not make enough efforts for the interconnections between Greece and Bulgaria to take place at the same time as BRUA 1, although the commitments have been assumed by everyone.

The European Commission has also not been uncompromising in its compliance with European commitments and legislation. “Under these conditions, the risks of this pipeline remaining empty increase, especially since earlier than five years it is excluded that Romania will have any significant production in the Black Sea. In this undesirable case, the transport costs from the bills paid by citizens and industry could to increase by about 25-30% because the amortisation of BRUA cannot wait and will start soon,” the specialist also wrote.

The works on the BRUA gas pipeline were completed a week ago.