Independent of Russia: Can Romania supply Europe with gas from the Black Sea?
Created: 06/29/2022, 15:15
By: Aleksandra Fedorska
The Petromar Central Platform produces natural gas in the Black Sea.
© OMV Petrom
Romania has large gas reserves that have not been mined for years.
That should change so that the EU is no longer dependent on Russia.
Bucharest – Not only Germany is trying to reduce dependence on gas imports from Russia.
Other countries are also looking for alternatives since the Ukraine conflict radically changed the global political situation.
Some countries, such as Romania, can count on their own deposits.
A trend reversal is emerging there.
Because the Romanian government around Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca wants to give up the current import policy and stop importing gas from Russia through more domestic production.
The Institute for Central Europe (IES) estimates that if all planned deposits in Romania come online, annual gas production could increase to almost 20 billion cubic meters in 2025.
Gas for the EU: "Necessary funds for such a large-scale operation" not available
The Romanian energy expert Dumitru Chisăliță only sees a theoretical chance that Romania will use the advantages of a gas importing country in the future, similar to Norway.
The prerequisite for this would be that Romanian politicians behaved responsibly and professionally.
“The real difference [between Norway and Romania] is that Romania does not base its development of economic activities on selecting the best.
It also does not have the necessary funds for such a large-scale operation," said Chisăliță
fr.de
from IPPEN.MEDIA.
About IPPEN.MEDIA:
The IPPEN.MEDIA network is one of the largest online publishers in Germany.
At the locations in Berlin, Hamburg/Bremen, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Vienna, journalists from our central editorial office research and publish for more than 50 news offers.
These include brands such as Merkur.de, FR.de and BuzzFeed Germany.
Our news, interviews, analyzes and comments reach more than 5 million people in Germany every day.
Before 1989, the Romanian economy was one of the most energy-intensive in the Eastern bloc.
In addition to coal, large amounts of natural gas were also used.
At its peak, in the early 1980s, Romania consumed as much as 32 billion cubic meters per year.
After reunification, consumption dropped massively and has leveled off at 10 to 11 billion cubic meters in recent years.
In 2015, Romania was still able to cover the demand from its own sources.
With the introduction of high taxes and duties for gas production, self-production fell sharply.
In 2020 it was 8.6 billion cubic meters.
Gas from Romania: deposits much larger than domestic consumption
Self-promotion at sea is now the focus of attention.
For years, the potential of the Neptun Deep natural gas field in the Romanian Black Sea remained untapped due to over-regulation.
Investors balked at the legal and tax difficulties imposed by the Romanian governments on investors in the energy sector.
The tax burden on the special profits from the extraction of raw materials was between 15 and 50 percent.
The license fees, which could amount to up to 13.5 percent, made gas production even more expensive.
The implementation seems all the more realistic since the state gas company Romgaz took over half of the largest gas field Neptun Deep from ExxonMobil at the beginning of May.
The other half of the Neptun Deep belongs to the Austrian OMV.
If work starts soon, as promised, Romania would become a major gas exporter in south-eastern Europe in a few years.
"Romania will have a gas surplus [after Neptun Deep is operational], will double its gas production well beyond current domestic consumption and become a provider of regional energy security," Energy Minister Virgil Popescu said.
also read
NATO counters Putin's nuclear threat: Agreed in Elmau, nervous in the Kremlin
Russia now controls Luhansk almost completely - but US experts now see a disadvantage for Putin
Deposits in the Black Sea: Up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas
Romania has several gas fields off its own coast.
In April, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced that Romania would produce around 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas offshore this year.
This corresponds to around 10 percent of annual consumption.
Up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas are suspected in the Romanian Black Sea economic zone.
Neptune Deep alone is said to have up to 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
In the Hurezani Gas Hub, the natural gas is fed into the Romanian grid.
© OMV Petrom
The offshore production facilities, which will go into operation in the second half of the year, are gas deposits relatively close to the coast.
Offshore gas production has only recently been made legal and relates specifically to the requirements of the Neptun Deep gas field.
As early as 2008, OMV Petrom, a subsidiary of the Austrian OMV, and ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil from the USA, founded a company for the use of Neptun Deep.
The shares of the companies are 50 percent each.
By 2016, preparatory work had been carried out that cost about $1.5 billion.
In 2018, under the social democratic government of Viorica Dăncilă, further commitments for the energy sector were decided.
As part of this reform, the obligation to sell natural gas through a single operator, OPCOM, and a sales tax of 2 percent were introduced, among other things.
This also meant that ExxonMobil had wanted to withdraw from its involvement in Romania since 2019.
Pipeline construction revived: So far, Russia has been the main supplier
Since domestic production was declining due to the costs, Romania has preferred to use natural gas from Russia from 2016.
The proportion of the raw material indirectly imported into the country was around 10 - 15 percent.
However, Romania has not signed any direct contracts with Gazprom.
In the future, Romanian natural gas is to be routed via the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (BRUA) gas pipeline.
The project was originally expected to be completed in 2021.
But the construction of the pipeline was meanwhile considered to have failed.
With the takeover of the ExxonMobil shares by the Romgaz, however, the construction of the pipeline could be revived.
That would be recommended, especially because a large part of the work for this had already taken place.
Bulgaria, Hungary and above all Austria could then also be supplied with additional gas from Romania via the BRUA.
(Aleksandra Fedorska)
