Romanian natural gas transport company Transgaz will soon open an office in Chisinau to speed up the construction of Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline that will bring Romanian gas to Moldova’s main industrial area, company’s CEO Gheorghe Simon announced on October 13 quoted by Mold Street online magazine. 

The interconnector between the two countries was completed last year, but Moldova still lacks proper connection between the border with Romania and the area of capital city Chisinau that concentrates major industrial activities.

Romania’s Transgaz has received all permits for the construction of the gas pipeline on Moldovan territory, the president of Transgaz’s managing board, Ion Sterian, announced after a meeting with Moldovan Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac on September 29. 

During the meeting, several aspects of the project to extend the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline to Chisinau were discussed, including the specification for public procurement, the deadline for the submission of tenders, the procedure for their examination, the criteria for determining the winner and launch of the construction.

During the dialogue, Calmac said that according to the action plan, in October, agreements on funding with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), providing €41.5mn each, would be ratified, while in November-December, the tender to select the company to build the gas pipeline will be launched.

The two officials also agreed that the gas pipeline construction would be synchronised on both segments, including the territory of Romania, in order to make it operational by the beginning of 2019.