{"id":6547,"date":"2023-03-27T12:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T09:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viitorulenergiei.ro\/?p=6547"},"modified":"2024-05-29T12:45:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T09:45:44","slug":"coooperarea-regionala-in-domeniul-gazelor-naturale-pilon-pentru-independenta-energetica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viitorulenergiei.ro\/en\/coooperarea-regionala-in-domeniul-gazelor-naturale-pilon-pentru-independenta-energetica\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional gas cooperation - a pillar for energy independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2022, energy security has become one of the European Union's topics of interest, due to the fact that Russia has almost completely stopped the supply of natural gas to EU countries. In order to ensure a secure and affordable supply, the EU is considering various measures, including increasing its own production, but also diversifying suppliers and supply routes, which will significantly reduce the countries' dependence on Russia. In this situation, Romania can capitalize on a number of its own strengths, including its geographical position, which is conducive to becoming a major energy hub, its existing and developing infrastructure and available resources.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHY IS NATURAL GAS IMPORTANT FOR EUROPE?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Natural gas consumption in the EU is significant: in 2021, the 27 EU Member States consumed 412 bcm, used in power generation, heating and industrial applications<\/a>. In terms of residential consumption, we note that in 2021, 30% of the dwellings in the Union were heated with natural gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year 2022 was a year of energy crisis for the European Union, marked by fluctuating prices, with a maximum of 340 euro\/MWh in August 2022, <\/strong>followed by a return to 40 euro<\/a>\/MWh in March 2023. <\/strong>Short-term adjustments were mainly based on a strong increase in LNG (liquefied natural gas) imports as well as reduced domestic demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the national level, the plan for moving towards energy independence varies from country to country, depending on the degree of dependence on Russian gas, geographical location, domestic resources, etc. In the case of Central and Eastern European countries, traditionally linked to Russian gas, the stakes are even higher, with a geopolitical component, heightened by the geographical proximity to Russia. For example, Poland, where Gazprom has stopped gas deliveries from April 2022, invested in an LNG terminal and Norwegian gas transportation<\/strong>through the Baltic Pipeline across Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central and Eastern European countries are integrating the development of renewables, diversification of supply sources by building LNG import capacity, and better integration of regional gas markets into their anti-dependency strategies. These, together with consumption efficiency, are emerging as solutions to the gas crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Current Russian gas imports from the continent, by pipeline routes (source: statista.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRUA. ROMANIAN SUCCESS STORY WITH BENEFITS FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

BRUA<\/a> (an acronym of the names of the participating countries Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria), is a new natural gas transportation corridor \"to ensure that the volumes of natural gas from these sources can be exploited on the Romanian and European markets and that permanent physical bi-directional flow on the interconnections with Bulgaria and Hungary is possible\"<\/strong><\/em> (cf. Transgaz). This corridor allows Romania to connect to regional transport corridors, responding to new opportunities created by the diversification of natural gas transportation routes from the Caspian Sea area to Central Europe. It also facilitates Romania's access to European markets, a useful element in the exploitation of natural gas resources in the Black Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a reminder, in the Black Sea there are ongoing exploitation projects developed by BSOG,<\/a><\/strong> in the Midia perimeter. New exploration is also planned in the Neptun Deep perimeter, developed by Romgaz<\/a><\/strong> and OMV Petrom<\/a><\/strong>towards which important steps have been taken.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRUA - part of the Vertical Corridor<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

BRUA is part of what is called The vertical corridor, <\/strong>an initiative to interconnect gas networks in order to increase the variety of gas sources and to support competition between suppliers. <\/strong>According to MFA<\/a>The implementation of the Vertical Corridor will link the natural gas transmission systems of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria in order to take up some of the gas volumes that could be made available through the Southern Corridor infrastructure. The components of the Vertical Corridor are the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector, the Romania-Bulgaria Interconnector and the BRUA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vertical Corridor was initiated by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the transport operators involved in December 2019.<\/strong> The first participating companies were the system operators from Romania - SNTGN TRANSGAZ, Bulgaria - BULGARTRANSGAZ, Hungary - FGSZ, Greece - DESFA, as well as ICGB - the company operating the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector - IGB, after the relevant ministries of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary signed a joint declaration of the Energy Ministers for the natural gas \"Vertical Corridor\" in 2016 at the CESEC meeting in Budapest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRUA - a successful project<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In Romania, the development of NTS as part of BRUA is represented by the construction of a new pipeline connecting the Podi\u0219or Technological Node with the Horia Gas Metering Station (GMS) in the direction Podi\u0219or- Corbu-Hurezani- Ha\u021beg- Reca\u0219- Horia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implementation of the BRUA Project on the Romanian territory was conceived to comprise 2 phases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n