Romania's Transgaz signs MoU on development of natural gas networks in Eastern Europe

Romania's Transgaz national natural gas transmission corporation signed on January 28 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Partnership for the Development of Natural Gas Networks in Eastern Europe (EE-NGP), according to a press statement released on Friday to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

The memorandum was signed by all the entities that are members of the project.

EE-NGP is established by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Energy Association of the United States of America (USEA), ministries and gas transmission system operators (TSO) of Eastern Europe to ensure a sustainable institutional capacity in view of the development and usage of the first joint methods for planning transportation in the region, to accelerate the development of the Eastern European gas transmission infrastructure.

The mission of EE-NGP consists of supporting the following objectives: promoting regional cooperation in view of the planning of natural gas networks among ministries and TSOs in Eastern Europe; improving the capacity of the ministries and of the transmission systems operators to develop mathematical models for forecasting and simulating the domestic gas networks; interconnection pipelines and storage facilities; supporting the harmonization at regional level of the methodologies for planning gas transmission and the operational principles.

At the same time, the initiative supports carrying out analyses to identify potential investment projects in the gas transmission infrastructure for expanding the gas markets, while ensuring the security and reliability of the regional energy system; promoting the results of the analyses to representatives of the political, regulatory and industry field.

The project member entities are: Albgaz (Albania); BH-GAS D.O.O. (Bosnia & Herzegovina); Bulgartransgaz (Bulgaria); Plinacro (Croatia); DESFA (Greece); Ministry of Economic Development (Kosovo); Ga-Ma AD Skopje (North Macedonia); Montenegro Bonus (Montenegro), Gaz-System (Poland); Transgaz (Romania); Eustream (Slovakia); the United States Energy Association - USEA.

These project member entities will constitute the EE-NGP Working Group composed of up to 2 people from each country, which will operate on the basis of a work plan and timetable for each of the successive stages of the project.