Gas exploitation in the Black Sea is an important resource for Romania in the context of the transition to green energy, but also in the current geopolitical context.
The new edition of the show New Economy approached the Black Sea from an energy and geopolitical perspective. The dialogue focused on the European policies that are shaping economic transformations and imposing major changes, the opportunities created by the production that will start in 2027, but also on the need to inform citizens about this project and the new technologies that will be developed, some of which will be supported by the gas sector.
Moderators Adrian Măniuțiu and Daniel Apostol, The Director-General of Oil and Gas Employers Federation, had as guests Ionuț Purica, Energy Expert, AREE, Cristian Păun, Prof. Univ. ASE Bucharest and Adina Ardeleanu, journalist, Financial Intelligence.
IONUȚ PURICA. NEW TECHNOLOGIES - THE SOLUTION TO LOWER CARBON EMISSIONS
We are in a context where we oversimplify things. If we only go by emissions, it means that decisions like "stop coal because it emits and pollutes" are wrong decisions.
The biggest source of pollution locally is transport. How will an economy without transport work? The logical, correct thinking is not to stop transport or coal, we stop polluting technologies in transport and replace them with clean technologies, at least locally: electric vehicles, fuel cells, so hydrogen, we stop polluting technologies in coal and replace them with technologies that are already called "clean coal", clean coal, even CO₂ storage.
CRISTIAN PĂUN. OPTIMAL USE OF GAS AND REINDUSTRIALIZATION OF ROMANIA
Black Sea gas may be the factor that will push Romania forward, but it may also be a kind of curse. Because if we don't pay a little attention to that resource and limit ourselves to just exploiting it, just extracting it and eventually giving it away as it is to others, we have a problem. Of course, the mission of the companies exploiting the gas from the Black Sea is to get the gas out of there, but in addition to this mission, which they should not take on, but the government and private entities, we should already be building a vertical industry that starts from this gas, because giving it as it is is a big mistake.
Romania, at the moment, without the Black Sea gas, the energy produced from this gas, is making do with what it has, with what industry it does NOT have. Accelerated industrialisation should precede the moment when the first gas molecules start coming ashore.
Neptun Deep Project, a strategic project, has also met with opposition, there is a populist, patriotic, even conspiratorial current. But with the takeover of EXXON MOBILE by ROMGAZ, a state-owned company, the state controls about 70% of the Black Sea exploitations, counting the other stakes. Thus, any argument that this project is not a Romanian project has been nullified, as it is practically controlled by the Romanian state at the moment.
ADINA ARDELEANU. INFORMING CITIZENS - A MULTIPLE RESPONSIBILITY
"Information is the role of companies, it's also our role as communicators or media people, it's also the role of the state, but it seems like it's somehow the role of everybody but nobody on point. At the end of the day, we need personal hygiene, to see what is too good to be true or what is never as good or as bad as things are presented to us. We need to inform ourselves from all possible sources, i.e. on a particular subject, if I really want to express an opinion, I really need to inform myself. And a very good starting point is the Bucharest Stock Exchange itself. We see the figures and we can think whether it is good or bad."
And because information is so important, including for the energy transition, Adina Ardelean presented the main themes of the dialogue within Energy Forum, 2024 edition, organised by Financial Intelligence.
"The Black Sea is becoming a new hot spot, if you will, in the geopolitical and energy context. Let's not forget that the takeover of Crimea meant not only a military issue, the port of Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea military fleet, it also meant the reserves in the maritime area around Crimea, which Russia can claim as its own."
Ionuț Purica - Energy Expert, AREE
"Black Sea gas represents a real opportunity for Romania to reposition itself even better in the list of countries that today form the Common Market. It is up to us, rather to the political factor, above all, to turn this opportunity into a real one or into a curse, which will then haunt us and cost us."
Cristian Păun - Professor, ASE
"Black Sea gas is a very important project for Romania and for ensuring energy security both here in our country and at regional level. What is very important in this project, from the citizens' point of view, is that the two companies that are part of this project, OMV Petrom and ROMGAZ, are also companies listed on the Stock Exchange. So anyone who wants to participate in this project, in its benefits and challenges, can do so by investing in these companies on the Stock Exchange."
Adina Ardeleanu - Journalist, Financial Intelligence
NEW ECONOMY is a series of dialogues with energy sector specialists from authorities and ministries on the transformations triggered by the energy transition. These are technological as well as economic changes, the imposition of higher and more costly environmental standards, and the possibility or impossibility of maintaining the competitiveness of certain industries.
