site.btaEuropean Court of Auditors: Bulgaria-Romania Gas Interconnector Cannot Ensure Sufficient Flows to Bulgaria

European Court of Auditors:Bulgaria-Romania Gas Interconnector Cannot Ensure Sufficient Flows to Bulgaria

Brussels, December 15 (BTA Correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - "The Bulgaria-Romania gas interconnector will allow for 1.3 million cubic metres/day natural gas supplies to flow from Romania to Bulgaria. However, under current conditions, low pressure in the Romanian gas system would prevent cross-border flows to Bulgaria in this volume," the European Court of Auditors found in a special report presented on Tuesday. Additional investments are needed in the Romanian gas transmission network to connect the internal transmission system with the transmission transit pipeline that crosses Romania.

"Potential flows of gas to and from Hungary would also currently face such constraints. Additional investments are needed in the Romanian gas transmission network to connect the internal transmission system with the transmission transit pipeline that crosses Romania. Romania would also need to repeal a domestic law forbidding such gas exports," the report says.

The gas interconnector projects between Romania, Bulgaria and Greece are constructing new gas pipelines in addition to existing pipelines. This is because the capacity of the existing gas transit network through Romania and Bulgaria to Greece has been reserved by a supplier from a third country under a long-term contract.

Referring to Bulgaria, the report notes the repeated change of the leadership of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC). "In the period 2009 to 2015, the EWRC chairperson was replaced by the government several times, including four times in 2013 alone. Independent regulators are required to set energy tariffs with reference to the actual cost base. However, EWRC set regulated electricity prices which have led to the situation in which the incumbent energy company is obliged to buy electricity at high prices and sell it at lower prices as a public provider, accumulating a deficit of approximately 800 million euro between 2010 and the end of 2014," the report says.

The audit covered policy measures and funding from 2007. It takes a regional approach and examines case studies in six Member States: Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.