Romgaz has delayed the development of some deposits because there is no market on which to sell the natural gas at this moment, Sorin Gal, General Director of the National Agency for Mineral Resources, stated on Wednesday.
“In recent years we have managed to stabilize the production of natural gas at around 11 billion cubic metres per year. We estimate a similar production level, of 11-11.2 billion cubic metres, in the following years too. We registered four major discoveries this year, one offshore and three onshore, made by companies I would not want to mention in order to avoid making free advertisement. The biggest problem we have identified this year and which will bring up special problems in the following years too is the fact that production remains constant but consumption has dropped significantly. We have had talks with Romgaz and we have delayed the development of some deposits because there is no market on which to sell the natural gas at this moment,” Gal stated at Romania Gas Conference & Exhibition 2015.
According to him, the problem is very serious and has repercussions on the services side because the drilling of wells is delayed and postponed.
Natural gas imports down 80 pc in first nine months
In the first nine months of the year, Romania imported 67,200 tons of oil equivalent (toe) of natural gas, down by 80 per cent (268,500 toe) compared to the quantity imported in the same period last year, according to National Statistics Institute (INS) data.
The domestic production of natural gas stood at approximately 6.38 million toe in the first nine months of this year, down by 1.3 per cent (82,700 toe) year-on-year.
According to the INS, natural gas imports stood at 447,400 toe in 2014, down by 61.5 per cent (714,100 toe) year-on-year. Likewise, last year the domestic production of natural gas totalled over 8.675 million toe, up by 0.9 per cent (73,900 toe) year-on-year, Agerpres informs.
The Energy Strategy 2015-2035, a draft document published on the Energy Ministry’s website, shows that Romania has the biggest natural gas reserves in Central and Eastern Europe (approximately 1,600 TWh).
“At an average annual production rate of 11 billion cubic metres, given a constant annual decline of 5 per cent in confirmed natural gas reserves, corroborated with a natural gas reserve replacement rate of 80 per cent, it can be said that the current natural gas reserves may be depleted in a period of 14 years,” the Energy Strategy reads.
