Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau is a gas pipeline that would facilitate the exports of Romanian natural gas to Moldova. Romanian natural gas transmission system operator Transgaz launched the technical tests on the pipeline.
The segment of the pipeline on Moldovan territory, Ungheni-Chisinau, has been built earlier and will be operated by Vestmoldtransgaz, a wholly-owned Moldovan subsidiary of Transgaz.
The tests will last a few days. This is the last phase before the commissioning of the project, which is the first real alternative for Moldova to total dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia.
The full length of the pipeline is 120 kilometers, and the gas will be delivered through three delivery stations: two in Chisinau and one in Ungheni. The annual transport capacity is about 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
However, at this moment, there is no commercial contract for bringing Romanian gas to Moldova, since no auction for booking the capacity of the pipeline has been held.
