Energy Minister: Romania needs Black Sea gas to comply with Green Deal

Romania needs the Black Sea gas resources in order to accomplish the ambitious carbon dioxide emission cuts undertaken through the Green Deal, Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Virgil Popescu told a specialist conference on Monday.

"The European Green Deal is the hot topic of this year. Under the Green Deal, the European Union aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55 percent until 2030, a high ambition Romania has acquiesced to and I think that we can make it. The EU has an even bolder ambition for 2050, achieving carbon emission neutrality," the minister said in the opening of the forum The Geostrategic and Economic Importance of the Black Sea in the Current European Context, organized by Financial Intelligence.

Popescu emphasized that for Romania, which covers 25 percent of its energy needs from coal resources, achieving these goals requires a lot of work.

"We have put up for public debate the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate Change, whereby Romania has committed to a very ambitious target of 30.7 percent renewable energy in 2030. (...) Considering that in 2027 - 2028 a part of the current renewable capacities will go out of use, 30 percent is an ambitious target, because we must be able to make the replacement and much more," said the government official.

He also mentioned that Romania plans to convert certain power generation groups from coal to gas in order to reduce power plant emissions.

The Energy Minister also referred to the onshore and offshore Black Sea gas reserves and advocated political consensus for the amendment of the offshore law to an "unanimously accepted version".

"We need gas, we need to bring it into the economic circuit, we need it in order to accomplish Romania's decarbonizing plan and the Green Deal targets, because without our gas, it is difficult to rely on import. On Friday I signed the building permit for the geological drilling required for laying out the pipeline in the Midia area, for the perimeter leased by Black Sea Oil and Gas, where the works are going ahead, and in 2021-2022 the gas will start flowing to the shore. I am optimistic that we will soon have the investment decision for the the Neptune block and the gas will reach the shore and will be processed in Romania," said the official. AGERPRES