Project Profile
Value: US$ 1-1.5 billion (estimate)
Location: Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria
Start-up year: 2020
Length: 1,318 km
Delivery Capacity: 6.1 mcm per day (Bulgaria), 6.1 mcm per day (Romania), 6.1 mcm per day (Hungary) and 52 mcm per day (Austria)
Initial Capacity: 23 bcm per year
BRUA project includes the construction of a gas corridor which opens access to gas from the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and sources of LNG via Bulgaria and Greece to Austria. The project entails the development of a network of bidirectional smaller pipelines rather than one big conventional pipeline. Gas will be transported north-south and east-west. BRUA will pump Caspian Sea gas via the Azerbaijani-Georgia-Romania Interconnector suggested under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Transgaz and SOCAR in July 2016.
Total costs for the project have been placed at US$591 million, while a US$527.9 million second phase will eventually connect BRUA to the Black Sea, where ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom are developing the Neptun Deep gas and condensate field.
Phase 1: Bidirectional transmission capacity of 1.5 bcm per year (Bulgarian direction) (2019)
Phase 2: Bidirectional transmission capacity of 4.4 bcm per year (Hungarian direction) (2022)
ROMANIA PIPELINE - national gas transmission system
Value: US$477 million (EU contribution 40%, 180 million euros or US$212 million)
Length: 550km
Compressor stations: 345 MW (Podisor, Bibesti and Jupa areas)
Start date: July 2016
End date: August 2020
The pipeline is part of EU project of common interest (PCI) no. 7.1.5 “Gas pipeline from Bulgaria to Austria via Romania and Hungary”.
Stage 1:
• Construction of a gas transmission pipeline from Technological Node (TN) Podisor to TN Recas
• Three compressor stations which are scheduled to start in January 2015 and end in March 2017 with total cost of US$3.2 million out of which 50% is EU funded.
Stage 1 will ensure the interconnection of the gas transmission systems of Bulgaria and Hungary (with high pressure systems) and Romania (with low pressure system) via the interconnection pipelines Romania-Bulgaria and Romania-Hungary.
Stage 2:
• Upgrade of transmission capacity and increase in the related pressures.
Operator: Transgaz
BULGARIA-ROMANIA GAS PIPELINE
Value: US$24.7 million (EU funds)
Location: Ruse,Bulgaria - Giurgiu, Romania
Start-up year: August 2016
Length: 25 km
Capacity: 1.5 billion cubic metres per year (Bulgaria - Romania) and 500 million cubic metres per year (Romania - Bulgaria)
The pipeline is an important link in the BRUA project because it integrates the Southern Gas Corridor (Azerbaijan-Turkey-Greece) and the Interconnector-Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) into the Central and Western Europe through the Romanian section. Bulgaria and Greece have agreed to build the IGB pipeline in October 2016.
Bulgarian section – 15.4 km
Romanian section – 7.5 km plus 2.1 km backup pipeline section beneath the river Danube at a cost of US$ 4.87 million.
Operators:
Transgaz
Bulgartransgaz
Contractors:
Habau: Completion of the Danube undercrossing backup pipeline (November, 2016)
Inspet SA: Work on the Danube undercrossing backup pipeline (November, 2016)