PM Ponta: We have gas reserves to last us for 6 months

Newsroom 17/06/2014 | 09:37

Prime Minister Victor Ponta has announced that on Monday he had a discussion with Energy Minister Razvan Nicolescu, the conclusion being that, in the short term, Romania has the necessary gas reserves to keep “any problems” at bay writes Agerpres.

“We have the obligation to govern and you see that the situation in the region is deteriorating, gas [deliveries] are discontinued. This morning I talked to the energy minister and I want to give the signal that, for Romania, in a short term of 6 months, there is no problem. We have the necessary reserves. The most important thing for us is to have stability and predictability on the whole political stage and the main responsibility for stability rests with us. I want to ask all of you, in all structures that you represent, to give the same message, that it is a period in which Romania needs stability more than anything,” PM Ponta said amid Russia’s decision on Monday to interrupt gas supplies to Ukraine, the country transited by a significant part of the Russian gas exports to the European Union.

Razvan Nicolescu, minister for Energy, said on Monday that “Romania will not encounter a major problem and we’re ready to cope with any situation”, reacting to the news that Russia has cut off the gas supply to Ukraine.

In 2010, Romania imported 2,271 mcm of natural gas representing 15.5 percent of its domestic consumption. All of Romania’s gas imports are being accomplished via pipeline, so far there are no LNG imports. The proportion of imported gas in Romania’s consumption decreased from 30.2 percent in 2007 to 15.5 percent in 2010.

The vast majority of the gas pipeline imports originate from Russia. In 2010, all of Romania’s gas imports originated from Russia while in 2009, Romania had imported 1.35% of its gas from Turkmenistan (the rest came from Russia).