Gas transmission tariffs will increase next year, after the BRUA pipeline will be put into use, as there are no quantities of gas to be transported through this gas pipeline yet, said on Tuesday, Maria Mânicuţă, director for electricity network tariffs and natural gas within the National Energy Regulatory Authority.

“The BRUA pipeline will be put into use this year. Given that we have not yet solved the problem of investments in the Black Sea, I am personally thinking about what we will transport through this pipeline. Especially since in parallel a new pipeline to the western part is developing through Bulgaria,” she said at a conference.

Maria Mânicuţă specified that Transgaz, the company that is building the BRUA pipeline, will start recovering the money from the gas transport tariff next year, therefore the bill of all Romanian consumers will increase.

“As such, starting next year, in gas transmission tariffs, Transgaz will start to recover its investment, which will mean an increase in this tariff, given that we will not have a gas traffic. I hope that there will also be available volumes of gas to be transported through this pipeline, so that the burden of this investment will not only be on Romanian consumers, but also companies to transport gas,” said the ANRE director, quoted by Agerpres.

The total investment for the construction of the BRUA pipeline is of 480 million euro and, according to the ANRE official, these costs will be recovered in 40 years.

“I am convinced that in the end BRUA will be used, but in the very near future there is a certain risk”, added Mânicuţă, present at a Focus Energetic conference.