The planned project of a gas interconnector between the Slovak Republic and its southern neighbour Hungary, which should increase the energy security of the whole region, is making headway.
Today the state secretary for the Ministry of Economy, Martin Chren, signed an agreement on the project today with his Hungarian counterpart, state secretary for the Ministry of National Development, Pal Kovacs. The agreement is only preliminary and deals with the basic outline of a bilateral agreement on the construction of the gas pipeline.
The two delegations examined the economic feasibility of the project and the benefits for both sides, among other things. The project will help diversify Slovakia’s gas sources, should the Russian Federation again cut off the supply through Ukraine, which led to the gas crisis in the 2009-2010 winter.
Once complete, the 115km gas pipeline would create part of the north-south corridor, which runs all the way from Croatia in the south to Poland in the north, terminating at LNG terminals in both countries.
The initial memorandum on the gas interconnector project was signed in 2009 by Slovak gas transit company eustream, a.s. and FGSZ in Hungary. The project has been included in the European Economic Recovery Plan launched by the European Commission in December 2008, and which will provide EUR 30 million toward the project.
Source: webnoviny