The other partners in the agreement are Turkey’s Botas, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, Hungary’s MOL, and Romania’s Transgaz. The j-v will conduct a feasibility study for constructing a gas pipeline from Turkey through Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary to Austria; work on the project is expected to commence in the Spring, 2003, and should last approximately 18 months. Among the partners in the j-v, Botas, the state-owned Turkish company, currently operates around 4650km of high-pressure gas pipeline within the country; this is expected to increase to about 7650km with the completion of a number of planned pipeline projects in coming years. The length of the BOTAS crude oil pipeline system is 2297km, and it will increase to 3370km after the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline. Bulgargaz,based in Sofia, is Bulgaria’s state-owned energy company. Its gas-transmission network comprises over 1200km of gas pipelines, four compressor stations, and 56 pressure-reduction stations. The company also owns and operates the transit network for gas to Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia, comprising 943km of gas pipelines and six compressor stations with a total installed capacity of 190 MW. The total length of the company’s main gas pipelines is over 2130km. Romania’s national gas transmission company Transgaz, with its headquarters in Medias, was established in May 2000, following the reorganization of the former Romgaz SA. It currently operates over 11,500km of pipelines ranging in diameter from 50mm to 1200mm.