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ANRE: Romania was a net exporter of energy in the first four months
The balance import-export of energy must be in favour of Romania and in the first four months of this year, our country was net exporter, stated the chairman of the National Authority for Regulation in the domain of energy, George Niculescu.
‘For the first four months of this year, every month we were energy exporter. Practically the balance was in favour of energy going from Romania towards the other markets, obviously due to a season rich in rains, fact which increased the production of electricity, especially on the hydro part, which allowed us to supply electricity on the other markets, not only on the domestic market’ Niculescu said at Aspen Energy Summit.
From the point of view of natural gas, he added, the production of our country, with investment effort, remained almost the same, very little dropping on the part of a big producer of natural gas.
‘The biggest producer of natural gas managed to keep its level of production relatively constant, through investments, I say again’ the ANRE chairman said.
Similarly, George Niculescu said that Romania should not go back to the situation to rely on gas imports from the Russian Federation.
He reminded the measures taken as regards natural gas, namely the agreement framework signed between Romgaz and SOCAR from Azerbaijan regarding supply of a billion cubic metres.
‘So, the measures taken by Romania were made to ensure energy independence, practically the reduction of the energy connections with everything that means products coming from the Russian Federation and why not, become exporters of energy security towards the neighbouring countries’ George Niculescu said.
He mentioned that Romania is interconnected from the point of view of transport of electricity with all neighbours, on the part of natural gas lacking the interconnector with Serbia, interconnector which would allow this country to benefit from another natural gas supplier, besides the one which traditionally they have. In case, from a strategic point of view, geopolitical one, they wanted to change the supplier, our country would be ready to assume this role, as we did, greatly, for the Republic of Moldova.
‘Indeed, to be honest, the efforts made by our government during this winter both from the point of view of electricity, and from the point of view of natural gas for the Republic of Moldova were unprecedented. Let us not forget that the natural gas in the Republic of Moldova comes from the west and does not come from the east anymore, and the legislative framework was changed so that the energy operation from the Republic of Moldova can buy energy from Romania, so that we reduce the dependence on the classic energy suppliers from the Republic of Moldova. So, practically, Romania becomes a hub. From my point of view, they are not only words, there are proofs or facts which show us and prove this. I want to remind you the agreement we signed on 17th December in Bucharest, at Cotroceni in the presence of the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary in the presence of the chairperson Ursula von der Leyen, thing which shows us that practically Romania can be a regional hub (…). Azerbaijan diversifies its export portfolio through the desire to export electricity from renewable resources through Georgia and obviously Romania is practically the gate to Europe for these volumes of electricity through a cable which could unite these four countries, and the energy produced in the Caspian area, I was telling you, will supply the markets in Europe through Romania’ said George Niculescu.