Romania takes decisive step to start building BRUA pipeline

Sorin Melenciuc 21/03/2018 | 15:59

Romania’s Ministry of Energy took on Wednesday a decisive step for the Romanian segment of the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (BRUA) major pipeline project, issuing a decision that gives to the state-owned company Transgaz the green light to start the building works.

“We issued the exhaustive decision at the same time as Transgaz fulfilled all the legal conditions necessary for the construction of this European gas pipeline. This moment is important because it brings us closer to the role that Romania wants to play in the region. Through BRUA, Romania will be able to exploit the enormous potential of the Black Sea natural gas reserves and thus we will become an energy security factor in this part of Europe,” Energy Minister Anton Anton said in a press release.

Within the next five years, Romania will become a major producer and exporter of natural gas, due to its offshore reserves located into its Black Sea exclusive economic zone.

But no real strategy emerged so far from the Romanian government concerning what Bucharest has in mind to do with the natural gas exceeding its current national consumption, a recent Business Review analysis showed.

At this moment, Austria is the key player for some other central European countries via its natural gas hub located in Baumgarten, and the new pipeline project BRUA (Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria) was viewed from Vienna as the perfect tool to strengthen its position on the European natural gas market.

But recently, a new player with limitless ambition emerged on the map: Hungary made two key moves in order to secure a seat at the table of the energy game.

First, in July 2017, Budapest announced that the BRUA pipeline, projected to connect Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary with the Baumgarten gas hub, will have its end in Hungary and will not have a connection to Austria (by doing so, the Hungarians cut the final A from BRUA, the project becoming BRU).

If many experts viewed the move as an attempt to secure a better position of Budapest in competition with Vienna, the second move raised questions about the real strategy of Hungary, a country with almost no energy resources, to become the dominant player on the energy market of the region.

On February 9, Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced, after his foreign minister paid a visit to Bucharest, that Hungary will soon sign a deal which will allow the imports of 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year from Romania over the next 15 years.

 

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