HOW DO WE PLAY THE ENERGY CARD IN EUROPE?

"At the moment, gas from the Black Sea will ensure Romania's energy independence, energy security in the region and an economic boost for Romania."

CRISTIAN HUBATI, MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF THE OIL AND GAS EMPLOYERS' FEDERATION

"The Black Sea is important because we are talking about the available resources, we are talking about the riparian countries that are interested in developing joint projects. And I would like to mention first of all the treaty Romania has with countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Hungary, on the underground cable."

OANA ÖZMEN, MEP, SECRETARY OF THE INDUSTRY AND SERVICES COMMITTEE

"The Black Sea has also become an extremely important sea for the United States. Which is good, because it means we are safe, secure. Indeed, the region has also become particularly important from an energy point of view."

ANTAL LÓRÁNT, SENATOR, CHAIR OF THE ENERGY COMMITTEE

"Some of the decision-makers in the European Union have started to rediscover the need to still have production within the EU. And then, I think, all of a sudden, the Black Sea can be a big focus."

CRISTIAN BUȘOI, CHAIR OF THE INDUSTRY COMMITTEE, ON

New Economy, June 18, 2024.

"Energy security - a European problem with Black Sea solutions"

Producer and moderator: Adrian Măniuțiu, journalist

Permanent guest: Daniel Apostol, Director General of the Federation of Oil and Gas Employers

Guests:

Cristian Hubati, Member of the Board of the Federation of Oil and Gas Employers

Oana Özmen, MP, Secretary of the Committee on Industry and Services

Antal Lóránt, Senator, Chair of the Committee on Energy, Energy Infrastructure and Mineral Resources

Online intervention:

Cristian Bușoi, Member of the European Parliament, Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

The dialog with Cristian Hubati touched on the Black Sea as a source of energy security for the country and the region, as well as on the new technologies needed for the energy transition to succeed.

ENERGY PRODUCES WEALTH - AN AGE-OLD TRUTH WITH MANKIND

"Energy consumption generates wealth for the population. Gas is a way of converting this welfare into energy."

NATURAL GAS - THE ENERGY THAT KEEPS US LIVING THE WAY WE DO TODAY

"I'll just give you an example. A google search, which gives multiple answers and then you have to keep searching, versus a search with ai. Search with ai consumes 10 times more energy, but it gives you single answers, it already filters. So from here alone, if we start looking, there will be an exponential increase in consumption. And then we have to keep in mind that gas, as a transition fuel, replaces other sources like coal, which have much higher emissions per unit. The neptun deep project has carbon emissions of 2.2 kg per barrel equivalent. That is extremely, extremely low compared to industry. The offshore industry is somewhere at 16. Romania will support the transition with a source with extremely low emissions because of the technology applied."

CCUS + GEOTHERMAL, EQUATION FROM ROMANIA'S LOW-EMISSION SYSTEM

"We have identified carbon as one of the sources of pollution. And then we have to sequester it, extract it from the atmosphere. Technologies come in on the carbon capture and storage or utilization side. The famous carbon capture and storage, which is an extremely technically stable subject, extremely important, because without these technologies, we will not be able to close the whole equation of consumption and emissions. Then, coming back to energy, there is the geothermal part, which produces thermal energy, produces electricity."

THE CARBON STORAGE BAR IS HIGH. HOW IS THE STATE TRAINING TO MAKE THE LEAP?

"It's the same story as investing in power generation projects. The duration is relatively long, there are a lot of actors involved, you need the legislative environment, fiscal stability, you need security in the area. Being a technology that is now scaling up, CCS needs a legislative framework that is developing at the moment. It needs to be speeded up because there are already European rules, European directives, which require Romania to have a certain amount of carbon storage per year. Brussels has created a framework and targets for all member countries, and Romania has a fairly ambitious target in this respect."

WHY DOES NATURAL GAS HAVE A FUTURE IN EUROPE?

"We now produce by technology, by thermal engines, by turbines, from different fuels. Power generation from gas has an extremely good efficiency, the conversion is done with virtually no yield destruction. In addition, it is 60% less polluting than coal."

POLITICIANS IN DIALOG FOR ENERGY SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

MEP Oana Özmen and Senator Antal Lóránt outlined the future of energy policies, the technologies of interest for decarbonization and the need for investment for a competitive industry, and gave a new definition of energy security. Watch the full dialog:

WHAT KIND OF ENERGY IS EUROPE MOVING TOWARDS?

OANA ÖZMEN: "It's very important what kind of investments you make and what kind of resources. Why? Because in Europe at the moment, everybody is investing in pretty much the same segment. We have a lot of photovoltaic panels, even in areas where we don't have sunshine. We tend to use one type of resource over another. Once again, there is the component, which Romania has and which is extremely necessary, of nuclear energy, which is extremely important in the transition. At the same time, what Romania needs to do is to become an energy hub. But to do this, it must necessarily develop regional programs. That means working with the surrounding countries, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, so that it can become an energy hub."

TECHNOLOGIES THAT MATTER

OANA ÖZMEN: "I know there are a lot of skeptics about the use of hydrogen. However, it will play a role. What is important and what we should do, compared to other countries, for example Bulgaria, which announced this year in May 2024 that it has inaugurated its first hydrogen charging station. Hungary has succeeded and has set a goal to have a plant producing more than 10 MW hydrogen. Now, while other countries are doing their homework very well, we still have implementation problems. If we are talking about Romania's energy security, it must be a priority, but I would see it as a priority alongside several other chapters. We are talking about the economy and here we are clearly talking about our priorities for industry. For polluting industries, it is clear that we must give them this opportunity to use hydrogen. That it will be a mix, that it will be a blue hydrogen, that we will use, and we have done well in the law that we have used, the reuse of hydrogen carbon. I hope that the technology will be mature enough and that we will be able to utilize green hydrogen, as, in fact, we have set out to do, because that's really the target."

ROMANIA MEETS THE 3 CONDITIONS FOR ENERGY SECURITY

ANTAL LÓRÁNT: "Lately I use to try to redefine what energy security means. Because energy security, at least from my perspective, and I think this is a correct perspective, means that three extremely important elements have to come together: the production capacity, the distribution capacity of the energy produced, and the defense capability of these distribution networks and the production capacity of electricity or natural gas. Why is it important to emphasize these three elements? Because if a country does not have these three elements, it has an energy security problem. Of course, if we develop the idea of energy security and we have these three elements, which Romania, thank God, does have, then we can indeed say that we have energy security and we can probably also become energy security providers."

DOES EUROPE WANT TO "MAKE INDUSTRY GREAT AGAIN"? 

ANTAL LÓRÁNT: "So if energy policies are based on pragmatic ideas, then we have to see what we want from us, the European Union. Do we want us to be a global economic player? Do we want to stay with an industry that is able to produce European products or not? If we come to the conclusion that we no longer want to have this role, then of course we can move at a major speed, with this energy transition, in the direction we are in today. But I think it is the wrong direction and, extremely importantly, the energy transition has a major cost. We need to talk very clearly about these costs and we need to see who ultimately pays these costs. But, once again, we need to put Europe on the map of the world and we need to say very clearly what we, the continent, want to become, with all the Member States of the European Union, and, when we have taken this decision, to go back to pragmatic energy policies."

EUROPEAN ELECTIONS AND ENERGY. THE CHANGES WE EXPECT

In his intervention in the program "Noua Economie", MEP Cristian Bușoi, Chairman of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, referred to the stakes of natural gas in the current geopolitical context, the changes triggered by the new European elections, as well as to the ability of our country to contribute to the increase of industrial competitiveness at European level.

PARADIGM SHIFT IN EUROPE

"As far as energy policy is concerned, because that's what Neptun Deep and the Black Sea is all about, here the need for a balancing act has been understood, because we will not be able to keep the energy system on renewables alone. Even if investments in batteries are becoming extremely interesting, and there is a lot of interest everywhere in the EU, there is also a need to produce from other sources. Some countries reject nuclear energy, obviously not Romania, but there are countries, including in Romania's neighborhood. Plus the need to continue to have gas for certain industries, which will invest in carbon capture, which cannot totally replace gas, and in the heating area, especially centralized heating, because we won't be able to use electric pumps immediately."

ROMANIA COULD BECOME AN EXPORTER OF INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS

"The still high energy prices are one of the problems for the competitiveness of European industry because, especially for energy-intensive industries, obviously the high cost makes them less competitive globally. That, coupled, we're talking about certain industries, with the price of CO₂ allowances, climate-related legislation. It remains to be seen whether the projections will come true, all the digital revolution, artificial intelligence and all the digitization of society in the coming years. Then, in theory, yes, Romania can contribute to increasing competitiveness because we have very ambitious projects, we have, obviously, on the nuclear side, two more nuclear units, plus the refurbishment and modernization of the existing ones, we have many projects, at least potential ones, in the field of renewable energies, we also have gas-fired electricity generation projects. Theoretically, we could become an exporter, but, obviously, it depends not only on how we manage to implement these production capacities, some of which are still only on paper, but also on how we invest in the transmission infrastructure, including interconnection."

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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. Adrian Măniuțiu and his guests bring all this to the public's attention in a series that aims to inform, educate and demolish myths in order to make the transition easier to understand, accept and overcome for the citizens of Romania.