EIB funds in the pipeline

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €50mn – the first tranche of an approved loan of €150mn – to Romanian gas utility Transgaz, to finance building a new pipeline linking Romania’s Black Sea shore natural gas resources with its national gas transmission network and the BRUA gas transmission corridor (linking Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria).

Keith Nuthall also reports that the Bank is also lending €25mn to JP Srbijagas Novi Sad of Serbia, for construction of the Serbian section of a gas interconnector between Serbia and Bulgaria. The new pipeline will enable the transfer of 1–1.8bn cm/y of natural gas annually from Bulgaria to Serbia, and 0.15bn cm/y from Serbia to Bulgaria. The project aims to provide diversification of gas supply routes and sources to the Serbian and south-east European gas market and to improve market integration and security of supply to both Serbia and Bulgaria.