Director general of the Romanian company Transgaz Ion Sterian said the capacity of the Ungheni-Chișinău gas pipeline will be of 1.5 to 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas a year. This volume is larger than the annual gas consumption in Moldova, which is of about 1 billion cubic meters a year. The issue was developed in the talk show “Fabrika” on Publika TV channel, IPN reports.

Ion Sterian assured that the gas pipeline will be built by the end of 2019. According to him, Transgaz has €90 million that it will invest in the construction of the Ungheni-Chișinău gas pipeline. The pipeline will help diversify the gas supply sources in Moldova. “The pipeline will be about 120 kilometers long and will go through four districts and will supply with gas all the people living in these regions that will be connected to the distribution network,” noted the businessman.

Next week the state-run company Vestmoldtransgaz will start to be transformed into a limited liability company. Later the pipeline building works will be put up for a tender contest and companies that will perform different works will be chosen. The tender contest is open to companies from the EU and from Moldova. Ion Sterian estimated that the contracts will be signed in the middle of October. “The order to start the works and to implement the gas pipeline project will be signed immediately afterward so that the works could be completed by the end of 2019,” said the director of Transgaz.

After the gas pipeline is built, the gas infrastructure in the Republic of Moldova will be connected to the gas networks of Romania, which is interconnected to that of Europe, and Moldova could receive gas from the Caspian Sea and the Nordic Sea, from northern Greece and Norway.