Officials of Austrian OMV Group, which controls Petrom, asked the representatives of Bulgartransgaz what are the opportunities of gas transport from Romania to Bulgaria, according to Georgi Gegov, head of the Bulgarian gas carrier.
Novinite notes that Gegov said the question was put by Reinhard Mitschek, Senior Vice President of gas logistics at OMV. According to Bulgarian media, Mitschek asked if there are opportunities to reserve available capacity in the Bulgarian transport system starting with 2016. Representative of Bulgartransgaz said the transit system was almost entirely rented by Gazprom until 2030, but there is the possibility of using 5 billion cubic meters available capacity in Bulgarian national transportation system.
Bulgartransgaz official said that Bulgaria plans to build a pipeline from Varna to Oryahovo, with a capacity of 45 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This pipeline can transport gas from Romania. The news revived, in our market, the scenario that OMV will carry through Bulgaria, and not through our country, the Black Sea gas.
Some analysts argue that it is normal for OMV to worry about transport routes and to take into account Bulgaria as a back-up for Black Sea gas, although the exploration stage is not finished:
“Romania is a country that in recent years has failed to fulfill investment plans, be it local and central authorities, be it state companies. By 2012, Transgaz was such a company. The establishment of a professional management changed the situation, but still there is a fear that politics may impede, through various ways, the implementation of investments undertaken by the management. And here we include the memorandum signed by Transgaz with Petrom and Exxon to transport the Black Seam gas through Romania.”
Analysts point to the fact that OMV makes its calculations based on several elements of cost, like fee for gas in Romania vs Bulgaria, the price of gas in Romania and Bulgaria, the sea-to-shore pipeline cost, but especially the freight rate of several million cubic meters of gas to be transported to consumers in the region.
Our authorities have excluded the possibility of transporting gas from the Black Sea on other territory than Romania, invoking the written understanding between Petrom, Exxon and Transgaz. Transgaz already has a connecting route, linked to Bulgaria and Hungary.
