BRUA Pipeline

The BRUA pipeline is a natural gas pipeline from Podișor, Giurgiu County to Recaș, Timiș County part of the future Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria gas interconnector . The pipeline attempts to lessen the country's dependence on Russian energy and provide a new export route for the future natural gas exploitation in the Black Sea. The BRUA pipeline will be eventually linked to the Giurgiu–Ruse and the Arad–Szeged pipelines.[1]

BRUA pipeline
Location
Country	Romania
General direction	east–west
From	Podișor, Giurgiu County
Passes through	Romania
To	Recaș, Timiș County
General information
Type	natural gas
Partners	Transgaz
Operator	Transgaz
Expected	2019
Technical information
Length	479 km (298 mi)
Maximum discharge	4.4 billion cubic meters (0.15 Tcf) per year
Diameter	32 in (813 mm)

Preparations for the project started in 2016, the financing agreements were signed in 2017 and the actual construction phase will start in the first quarter of 2018. The project is developed by Transgaz, the technical operator of the national natural gas transmission system in Romania. The first phase of the pipeline is expected to be operational by 2019 and the second phase by 2022.[2]

History

The agreement for the construction of the BRUA pipeline was signed on November 28th 2017 at a total cost of €479 million. Financing for the first phase is provided by a European Commission grant of €180 million, a €50 million European Investment Bank loan and a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan of €60 million. The pipeline is supposed to be inaugurated in two phases in 2019 and 2022.[3] [4]

Technical description

The length of the pipeline will be 479 kilometres (298 mi) and the construction will start on three different sections in early 2018. The general contractor of the first two sections is the Austrian company Habau and the third section is contracted by the Romanian company INSPET. The 32 inches (810 mm) BRUA pipeline will cross 79 administrative units in 11 counties, and will include new gas compressor stations at Podișor, Bibești and Jupa and the final transport capacity will be 1.75 4.4 billion cubic meter (bcm) of natural gas per annum.[5] The total cost of the pipeline is around €479 million.[6]

References

1. "UPDATE 1-Gas pipeline through central Europe to go ahead as planned -Romania". Reuters. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
2. "Central-Eastern European pipeline gets go-ahead". Euractiv. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
3. "BRUA Pipeline To Proceed Despite Recent Setback". Newsbase. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
4. "Transgaz obtine 60 milioane euro de la BERD pentru gazoductul BRUA". Wall Street Journal Romania. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
5. "BRUA Pipeline". EBRD. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
6. "Transgaz a semnat conctractele pentru gazoductul BRUA. Unul dintre câştigători a fost amendat în 2012 pentru trucarea unei licitaţii a operatorului de transport". Adevarul. Retrieved January 21, 2018.