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Moldova marks on Wednesday the 23rd anniversary of independence by the launch of the Ungheni - Iasi gas pipeline that will unite the country’s gas transportation system with neighbouring Romania, ITAR-TASS reported.

The project implementation for which the EU allocated 26 million euro took one year. The EU aimed to connect the Moldovan gas transportation system to the European thus strengthening energy security of Moldova by means of alternative gas supplies from Romania.

The Romanian natural gas price was not disclosed, but Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca told reporters that he hoped that “it will be lower than Russian Gazprom’s price.” According to him, Moldova was in negotiations with the Russian gas holding on the reduction of the price of gas that the republic imports at about $730 for 1,000 cubic metres.

Under an agreement signed in early August by the Romanian Transgaz company and Moldova’s state-run enterprise Vestmoldtransgaz, due to the low capacity of the pipeline, the Romanian gas supplies will not exceed 50 million cubic metres of gas per year, which is about 4% of the country’s annual gas demand (some 1.3 billion cubic metres). For the project’s economic efficiency it is necessary to build the additional branch Ungeny - Chisinau with compressor stations and other transport infrastructure, which will take another 50 million euro in investment.