First winners of Romanian gateway to Western gas

At the beginning of last month, the Hungarian village of Csanadpalota saw the official opening of the Arad-Szeged pipe, the first gateway to the west that could be used to transport gas from elsewhere than Russia in the future, which has been the source of all imported gas necessary for Romanian consumption in the last 30 years.

Both in Romania and in Hungary, several construction companies worked based on contracts worth tens of millions of euros, and have in fact been the first winners of the over 100 kilometre-long pipe that links the gas transportation system in Romania to the Hungarian one.

“Romanian companies involved in building the pipe were Amarad, as main contractor, Inspet Ploiești and Ami Baia Mare. Amarad carried out the bulk of works on the pipe, around 45%,” says Miron Cheregim general manager and shareholder of Amarad.

In terms of contract values, Arad-Szeged was not the most significant one for the companies involved in the project, but was among the major ones.

“The contract carried out by Amarad is representative both in terms of value and in terms of importance. The overall value of the construction and installation contract is over 100 million RON (around 24 million euros), but is lower than that of big contracts carried out in the past, the Isaccea-Negru Vodă pipe with a 1.2-metre diameter, or by ongoing contracts,” says the Amarad representative. According to Finance Ministry data, the company posted around 32 million euros in turnover last year and a 0.5 million-euro net profit.