OREANDA-NEWS. August 18, 2014. According to the press service of the government, the document was signed on Thursday in Bucharest by SOE Vestmoldtransgaz- operator of the gas transportation system of Moldova and the national gas company of Romania's Transgaz.

The agreement provides cooperation for joint operation of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline with a total length of about 44 km. The document establishes a set of rules, operating procedures and technical conditions for delivery and receipt of gas by Moldova from the Romanian transmission system. The Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline is a project combining systems of transport of the natural gas between Moldova and Romania.

The total capacity of the pipeline is 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, but at the first stage Moldova will be able to get up to 50 million cubic meters of gas per year. The construction of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline was launched on 27 August 2013. It is planned to put into operation one year later, on August 27, 2014 in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Moldova and Romania Iurie Leanca and Victor Ponta, as well as the European Commissioner for energy Gunther Oettinger.

As InfoMarket informed before, the total cost of the project for the construction of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline amounted to 26 million euros. Thus, the cost of construction of the Moldovan part of the pipeline made up about 8.3 million euros, 5.3 million euros of which was provided by the government of Romania, and another 3 million euro by the European Union.

The next stage of the project involves the construction of a gas pipeline Ungheni-Chisinau in Moldova and gas pipeline Onesti-Letcani with a compressor station on the territory of Romania.