Romania has sufficient natural gas reserves

Consistent with the objective of ending its dependence on Moscow's fossil fuels, established in the context of the situation generated by Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the European Union continues to apply the necessary measures decided in Brussels. These relate, among other things, to the establishment of common gas storage sites. And the process, launched a few months ago, is progressing well, at a better pace than the one envisaged. The common European gas storage sites have already been filled to 84% of their capacity, which means more than the set objective, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced in September. „Our friends in the Baltics have worked hard to end their dependency on Russia. They have invested in renewable energy, in LNG terminals, and in interconnectors. This costs a lot. But dependency on Russian fossil fuels comes at a much higher price. We have to get rid of this dependency all over Europe" Ursula von der Leyen said.

At the time of the announcement, gas storage sites in Romania had reached the minimum filling threshold of 80%, provided for in the new regulation of the European Commission as part of the preparation measures for the cold season. And in the month that has passed since then, the filling level increased by another 11%. On Sunday, Romania had more than 2.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas in storage, which means almost 91% of the country's storage capacity, announced Transgaz, which stated that gas storage would continue until October 30. Meanwhile, Romania's gas imports fell by over 20% in the first eight months of 2022, compared to the same period of last year. And the National Strategy and Forecast Commission estimates that the trend will be maintained for the entire year.

In addition, domestic natural gas production, which in the first eight months was by 4.6% lower as compared to the same period of 2021, will increase by almost 2% as against last year. The figures published by the National Institute of Statistics show, on the other hand, a decrease in electricity consumption in Romania by 5.3% in the first eight months of this year, as compared to the same period of 2021. This reduction led to an increase of electricity export by almost 85 million kWh. The figures also reveal that, while public lighting registered an increase of almost 4%, population consumption decreased by 7.7%. The data announced on Friday showed that Romania exported 1,100 MW, mainly due to the high production obtained by the wind farms. The total energy production was 6,300 MW, and the consumption of approximately 5,200 MW. (LS)