Slovenia and Hungary are expected to sign a memorandum on constructing a pipeline linking their natural gas networks in October, less than a year after the proposed project was first made public by the countries’ prime ministers.
Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Facebook last week that the two countries had finalised the cooperation agreement greenlighting the “construction of a natural gas interconnector.”
The Slovenian Infrastructure Ministry confirmed the news on 1 September, when it revealed that the price of the Slovenian portion of the project would be €121 million.
It said that the first step would be the construction of pipeline sections from the village of Tornyiszentmiklosa on the Slovenian border to the Hungarian town of Nagykanizse suitable for two volumes of gas transport – 25,000 and 50,000 cubic metres of gas per hour for both flow directions.
Slovenia needs to build a 75-kilometre pipeline from Kidričevo in east Slovenia to Pince on the border with Hungary and an additional compressor unit in Kidričevo to ensure two-way capacity.
“Following a proposal from the Slovenian side, both sides agreed that the pipeline should be suitable for the transmission of both natural gas and hydrogen,” the Ministry said.
The new pipeline link will thus have an annual capacity of 440 million cubic metres.
The countries’ Prime Ministers, Robert Golob and Viktor Orban, discussed the pipeline’s construction in December 2022 when they attended a ceremony marking the completion of a high-voltage power line linking the two national grids.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)
Read more with EURACTIV
Poland to establish energy transition ministry
Source: euractiv.com
