Romania intends to cut reliance on Russian gas

By Our Special Correspondent

Gas now flows into Romania from a new Black Sea platform operating in waters, where mines and warships have been spotted.

The dangerous reminders of the war raging nearby in Ukraine underscore Romania's determination to cut its reliance on Russian natural gas imports.

With fears growing across the European Union that Moscow will cut gas shipments in retaliation for EU support to Ukraine, countries are scrambling to find alternative supplies.

"Romania is taking a decisive step to ensure its energy security... at a time when international gas supplies are threatened by the war in Ukraine," Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Tuesday, as he inaugurated a processing plant belonging to the Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG) in the southeastern village of Vadu.

While Romania has significant reserves on land and at sea, it still has to turn to Russia in winter to cover around 20 percent of its consumption.

Backed by American private equity firm Carlyle Group LP and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, BSOG began two weeks ago to tap underwater deposits, becoming the first new offshore Black Sea development in the past 30 years.

The $400-million platform extracts three million cubic meters of gas per day. It is due to recover one billion cubic meters per year for 10 years, or around 10 percent of Romania's needs.

"Today we are facing an emergency in terms of energy supply. We must put our old devils in the closet... and start producing locally," said Thierry Bros, an expert on energy and the climate at Sciences PO University.

"We must re-launch the projects in the Black Sea, re-launch the growth of production in Norway, in the United Kingdom we must think of launching the production of shale gas and in France the production of mine gas" he told AFP.

In Vadu, BSOG CEO Mark Beacom said he hopes that the "state-of-the-art" infrastructure put in place by his company will be used for future gas or renewable energy projects in the Black Sea.

But the invasion of neighboring Ukraine by Russia has complicated the situation.

"We are not in a war zone, but we are close enough and it clearly has an impact," he said.