Some 11 gas trading companies have shown their interest to transportation of gas from Romania to Ukraine using the Trans-Balkan pipeline, the press service of public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz has reported after the assessment of market demand for this route.

"Eleven leading European and Ukrainian gas traders have expressed the interest in transportation of natural gas from Romania to Ukraine in the amount of up to 10 billion cubic meters a year, which is twice more than the capacity of the pipeline," the company said.

The press service reminded that it would be possible to transport gas via this pipeline in 2020 when the gas transit contract with Russia's Gazprom expires.

The Trans-Balkan pipeline is a promising alternative source of delivering natural gas to Ukraine, taking into account the launch of the TANAP gas pipeline, availability of LNG terminals in Greece and Turkey and prospects of growth in gas production on the Black Sea shelf in Romania.

"The ten-year plan for the development of the SNTGN Transgaz SA, the Romanian gas transport system operator includes the project of connecting the national gas transportation system and Romanian offshore gas fields with the Transit-1 pipeline (one of the three pipelines of the Trans-Balkan system) .The operators of the GTS of Romania and Ukraine also approved the reconstruction of the Isaccea-1 gas metering station, which will improve the accuracy of gas measurement and will ensure the possibility of a two-way gas flow at this junction point of the systems," Ukrtransgaz said.