PRAGUE. - INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - German energy group (49,52 EUR, 1,25%), the owner of the Czech firm Transgas, is planning a new gas pipeline in the Czech Republic that will be about 60 kilometers long and will cost around EUR 80 mln, Czech daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) wrote Thursday.
The LBL pipeline, to be connected to the existing network near Breclav in southern Moravia, will be a link to the gas compressor station at Baumgarten on Austria's border with Slovakia, which is a vital point in the East-West natural gas supply corridor from Russia.
Transgas Net head Thomas Kleefuss said the firm believes the gas to flow in the new pipes in three years. It holds the license for gas transit through the Czech territory.
The new gas pipeline could be a direct continuation of the Nabucco line that is being pushed through by the European Union and is conceived as a way to bring energy supplies from the Caspian area to Europe while bypassing Russia, HN said.
Transgas Net is seeking to lure firms that transport gas to the region through Slovakia.
Transgas Net is also planning another line, Gazela, that will cost around EUR 400 mln and is to be built in the north-west of the Czech Republic. The project is directly connected with the North Stream line which will transit gas from Russia through the Baltic Sea to northern Germany.