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President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that Romania's gas deposits are full, but that there needs to be a safety margin.
"We have to understand that in the field of energy we need a phased plan and we have this plan in Romania. We have to work firstly in the short and very short term on this winter's supply, we have to work in the short and medium term for the following winters, for the coming years and we need to have a longer term plan that will ensure not only our independence but also enough energy to export. We have these plans and this thinking. At this stage when we need additional resources for the winter, work is being done along two paths. On the one hand, the storage capacity we have in Romania is quite large, in recent years it has not been used, but this year it was. We are at almost 100 percent in terms of storage, so our gas deposits are full, but we also want to have a safety margin and in this sense, several import contracts are being negotiated on routes other than Russian gas. We also need them for own consumption , but at the same time we are also considering supplying the Republic of Moldova, in case particularly serious problems arise there. This is short-term and we are doing well," said the head of state, after the meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda.
As for the medium term, President Klaus Iohannis stated that new resources need to be accessed, in which context he recalled the meeting with Romgaz-OMV Petrom regarding the start of gas exploitation in the Black Sea.
"We have received firm promises that in the course of next year the investment decision will be made and soon enough the construction of the installations to extract gas from the Black Sea will be underway. It is about the perimeter called Neptun Deep. We believe that by accessing this resource in the long term, we will have the necessary gas secured, together with imports, which, if needed, will continue. In parallel, Romania supports the development of renewable energy and this will lead to a significant increase in the share of renewables in the national energy mix," said the head of state.
He also mentioned that there are concrete plans regarding the investment in nuclear power plants, specifying that the financing is quite well secured for the development of units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda Power Plant and that small nuclear power plants will be introduced.
"All this comes to fulfill: one - the objective of energy autonomy. Two: the objective of sufficient production to ensure energy export included. Three: it ensures Romania's transition to a green economy. And for 2050, you know that we have the ambition to become neutral in terms of emissions, this meaning that until then the production provided by renewables and nuclear should be sufficient and replace the other production facilities that will be re-engineered. So here is a very ambitious, very comprehensive plan, which spans several decades and in this way Romanians can be assured that things are not only under control, they are also planned for the future," said Iohannis.
He also indicated that interconnections with all neighbors are being considered in order to be able to export, but also to import energy.
"Two aspects of technologies that are less common, but which we believe will have an important contribution in the future, are worth mentioning: the production and transport of hydrogen are in our attention and, through the PNRR [the National Recovery and Resilience Plan], such facilities are financed which, in my opinion, will expand significantly in the coming decades. And in parallel, work is being done to create electricity storage facilities, that is, very large batteries that can instantly deliver electricity when, for one reason or another, consumption suddenly increases. All of this is in the works and they will significantly change Romania's energy map, significantly more, for Romanians," said Iohannis.
The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, recalled that Lithuania was the first country to completely abandon energy resources from Russia.
We did this in April, both in terms of natural gas and of crude oil, petroleum, used in refineries. It was very important for us, primarily for political reasons, because in the last 30 years we have faced, if not energy blackmail from Russia, at least a strong desire for manipulation, which is beyond their reach at this moment. What we have not done and must do in the medium and long term is, of course, to boost the electricity generation facilities that we have. At the moment we provide 70 percent of our own electricity, because of Russia's war in Ukraine, but the energy sources have higher and higher prices, which we have to pay and we have to find solutions to mitigate their impact on the economy. It is clear that we must become independent, even energy producers. This is a very important goal for Lithuania in the next 10-15 years, said the Lithuanian president.AGERPRES
