Transgaz estimates investments of over 6 billion lei until 2020
The Transgaz National Gas Transport Company is running a number of nine development projects worth 1.62 billion euros by 2026, said on Monday the general manager of the company, Ion Sterian, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the listing of Transgaz on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).
"Seven of the projects are within the country, and two projects are international and can turn Transgaz into the first Romanian company with majority state capital in a multinational one at regional level. We will become one of the four-largest companies of this type in Europe," said Sterian.
The national gas transporter Transgaz ( on the stock exchange TGN) planned investments of 6.1 billion lei between 2018 – 2020 for the development of the National System of Transport as well as for the acquisition of shares to profile operators in Europe, according to some documents published on the site of the company. Moreover, Transgaz estimates for this year a net yield of 213.16 million lei, more than twice less than the preliminary for last year, for total income of 2.52 billion lei,higher by 25.38%.
The indicators will be under approval in the meeting of the shareholders on 5 March.
The money will be directed to the acquisition of shares of the state-run company Vestmoldtransgaz of the Republic of Moldova as well as to pay the Transgaz shares of the acquisition of 66% of DESFA, the operator of the gas distribution grid of Greece. At the same time,the expenses with investments include the necessary for the construction of the pipeline Ungheni-Kishinev.
Another major project developed by Transgaz is the first phase of the BRUA gas pipeline, which will link Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. The pipeline will have a length of 570 kilometers and will have three 10 MW compressing stations each and a capacity of 1.75 billion cubic meters per year in bi-directional flow.
The second part of the BRUA project will ensure the transport of gas volumes from the Black Sea to Central Europe. The estimated costs stand at 69 million euros, and the deadline for completion is 2020. The project aims to increase the BRUA capacity from 1.75 billion to 4.4 billion cubic meters per year to Hungary and the expansion of compressing stations.
BRUA will also have its third phase worth 530 million euros, which will be ready in 2023 and aims at rehabilitating and replacing pipelines from the national gas transportation system and developing 4 or 5 new compressing stations.
Other Transgaz projects relate to new developments for the take-over of gas from the Black Sea, worth more than 280 million euros.
"The gas coming from the Black Sea is primarily destined for Romanian consumption, which I want to grow. It is not true that the gas will have a direct export destination," Sterian said.
He recalled the project in collaboration with ExxonMobil, which is on schedule but also with Black Sea Oil and Gas, which will begin production of Black Sea gas in the middle of 2019. As for the Neptun Deep project, ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom will take this year's final investment decision.
Other projects of Transgaz are aimed at developing pipelines in the country, such as those in the northeast, as well as the modernization of Isaccea and Negru Voda measuring stations, as well as interconnection with Serbia, which will be ready in 2026 and requires 43 million euros.
From the total, the expenses with investments planned for this year are 1.88 billion lei, other 2.96 billion lei are budgeted for next year, and in 2020 the company wants to allocate for investments another 1.25 billion lei.
The financing will be assured from own sources, European funds and banking loans, the document says.
Similarly, the company estimates for this year a net profit of 213.16 million lei, less than half of the net profit estimated for 2017,of 513.1 million lei. The total income for this year is 2.512 billion lei, with 25.38% higher than the total income estimated for last year, of 2 billion lei.
The estimates regarding 2019 show that Transgaz estimated a net profit of 257.89 million lei and total income of 4.17 billion lei. In 2020,Transgaz wants to get 2.9 billion lei total income and a net profit of 200.9million lei.
Transgaz reported for the first nine months of last year a net profit of 433.5 million lei, higher by 21% than the net result of the similar period of 2016, of 358.46 million lei.
The gas quantity transported increased by almost 14% to 9.21 million cubic metres.
The majority shareholder of Transgaz is the ministry of economy which controls 58.5% of the shares.
The company has a capitalisation of 4.9 billion lei.