Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania have signed a contract on cooperation in the development of regional gas infrastructure.

The contract for what was called the "Vertical Gas Corridor" was signed Tuesday by the energy ministers of the three countries.

In February 2011, the EU decided that each Member State had to have at least two sources of natural gas and electricity by 2014 in order to be able to cope with a cut-off of Russian supplies.

Romania still lacks a connection to Bulgaria’s gas grid, despite the fact that a project for the construction of a gas pipeline between Giurgiu and Ruse has been available for years, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

The gas pipeline, evaluated at around EUR 24 M, is to be completed by 2016.

Romania’s gas transmission grid is connected to those of Hungary and Moldova.

In the case of a suspension of imports from Russia, however, it will not be able to make up for the losses through these connections because the gas imports from Hungary are negligible and the pipeline to Moldova is used for exports.