First section of Nabucco gas pipeline opens in Hungary
Baku, October 18 (AZERTAC). The first section of Nabucco gas pipeline has been launched in Hungary. Romania and Hungary inaugurated a gas pipeline connecting the two countries` transmission systems. The Szeged (Hungary) - Arad (Romania) pipeline is the first in a series of interconnector projects supported by the EU in Central and Southeastern Europe. The EU` Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, joined the Hungarian and Romanian Prime Ministers, Viktor Orban and Emil Boc, for the inauguration ceremony at the Csanadpalota metering station on the two countries` border.
Jointly built by Hungarian MOL’s gas transmission unit FGSZ and Romanian system operator Transgaz, the line runs for 109 kilometers (km) - 62 km on Romanian and 47 km on Hungarian territory. Amid financial hardships in both countries, the line took almost two years to build, and underwent testing operations from July to date. The EU covered 50 percent of the pipeline`s aggregate cost of some 68 million Euros from the European Energy Economic Recovery Program (EERP) funding.
The Nabucco project is operated by Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH is a Vienna-registered company for the Nabucco pipeline project. The managing director of the company is Reinhardt Mitschek. The shareholders of the company are: OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), BOTAŞ (Turkey) and RWE (Germany). Each of the shareholders holds 16.67% of the shares.
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