Romania to run out of gas in 14 years, if deposits from Black Sea remain unextracted

Romania's gas reserves will be depleted in the next 14 years, and the rate of exploitation of deposits from the Black Sea is a sine-qua-non condition to further rely on this resource in the country's energy mix, shows Romania's Energy Strategy 2018-2030 project, with a view to 2050, published on Thursday on the website of the Ministry of Energy. 

"In order to avoid the significant growth of import dependency, even if they are available from sources and alternative routes, it is necessary to develop the off-shore deposits discovered in the last years in the Black Sea. This is a sine-qua-non condition in order to rely on natural gas in the electric energy mix," the strategy mentions. 

The data provided by the National Agency for Mineral Resources, inserted in the project, show that the natural gas reserves of the country, without the ones from the Black Sea, stand at 153 billion cubic meters, which, for an annual production of 10.5 billion cubic meters, would be enough for 14.6 years. 

The gas production from the Black Sea will reach its peak in 2025: "the production of natural gases will drop after reaching a peak of 132 TWh in 2025, as a result of the production in the Black Sea, to 96 TWh in 2030 and 65 TWh in 2050". 

The exploitation of mineral oils in the Black Sea will have a major contribution in ensuring Romania's energy security. Cumulative levels of conventional onshore and offshore production could potentially exceed the currently estimated level of the internal market's demand, which is relatively linear.