Ukraine and Romania sign agreement to connect gas transport systems
The operators of Ukraine's and Romania's gas transportation systems have signed an agreement on connecting gas transportation systems at the Isakcha point, located on the border between Orlivka (Ukraine) and Isakcha (Romania), the press service of Ukrtransgas said in a statement. The agreement reportedly covers the route of the gas pipeline that is used for transporting gas from Ukraine through Romania to Bulgaria, the connection point being Negru Vodă Romania.
“The agreement... is fully compliant with requirements of the Commission Regulation (EC) 2015/703 of the 30th of April, 2015 that introduces a network-based code of conduct of functional interoperability and data exchange. The operators of gas transportation systems plan to ensure the constant and uninterrupted transportation of gas from Ukraine to Bulgaria and the capacity for uninterrupted transportation of gas in reverse,” the statement says.
Earlier, this route was used by Gazprom for gas supplies to Bulgaria. However, Ukraine and Romania decided to follow the normative and legal regulations of the European Union after the agreement on the use of the gas pipeline expired.
Along with the recently signed agreement between Greece and Bulgaria, Bulgaria's and Romania's current agreement will provide reversible flows of gas from Ukraine to Greece, although currently only a virtually northward direction is possible. The European Union called on Naftogaz and Gazprom to agree on the conditions of purchase of Russian gas.