RSS
Energy & Environment
Romania ready to replace Bulgaria in Russian South Stream Pipeline
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Romania has declared its readiness to replace Bulgaria in the Russian-sponsored gas transit pipeline South Stream. This has been made clear in an official position issued by the Romanian Economy Ministry, as cited by BNR, Novinite.doc is saying. The condition set by the Romanians for the Russian energy company Gazprom for having South Stream go through Romanian territory is full adherence to the local legislation with respect to the route of the pipeline. The Romanian proposal is for the ...
Gov't asks Parliament to urgently ratify Nabucco agreement
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Government has approved the bill for the ratification of the international agreement on Nabucco gas pipeline construction and urged the Parliament to ratify it in an emergency procedure.'This is an extremely important project on which, to a great extent, Europe and Romania's energy security depends upon, given that Romania has an energy dependency of approximately 35 percent. This project, with the participation of six companies - Transgaz from Romania - will secure the gas pipeline ...
US Government to offer Romania technical and financial assistance in detecting radioactive sources
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The American Government will give Romania technical and financial assistance in equipping some installations in order to detect radioactive sources inside the country. In this sense, US Government and National Commission for Nuclear Activity Control (NCNAC) representatives signed an agreement regarding the cooperation for increasing Romanian radioactive material sources' physical security. The US ambassador to Bucharest Mark H. Gitenstein declared that, in this way, the ...
EU clears extra funds for carbon storage, offshore wind
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The European Commission yesterday (9 December) approved a series of offshore wind and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that will receive over €1.5 billion from the EU's economic recovery fund.Six CCS demonstration projects were deemed mature enough to qualify for the €1 billion designated to support the fledgling technology .These include Vattenfall's Jaenshwalde power plant in Germany, Endesa's Compostilla plant in Spain, Maasvlakte plant in the Netherlands, Hatfield in the UK and ...
Enel: No climate deal without global carbon market
Thursday, December 17, 2009
With nearly 200 nations having begun climate talks in Copenhagen, a genuine global regulatory framework is required to create a level playing field for businesses seeking to slash their emissions and move towards a low-carbon future, Giuseppe Montesano, head of environmental policy at Italian power company Enel, told EurActiv in an interview."A global agreement is a pre-requisite for a global carbon market, which is in turn the condition to set a CO2 price, which is what allows companies to ...
UN carbon-offsetting scheme 'in urgent need of reform'
Thursday, December 17, 2009
International carbon emission offsets are likely to continue to be based on the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as the EU's proposal to replace it with sectoral crediting will not be feasible for years to come, Eva Filzmoser, coordinator at CDM Watch, told EurActiv in an interview. Filzmoser said the ongoing climate talks in Copenhagen are likely to produce only a framework agreement on the CDM, leaving details to be filled out later. She stressed that it will be necessary to come to ...
EximBank guarantees 70 M dollars loan for building gas pipeline
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Eximbank is going to guarantee a 70-million dollars loan to Oil Services Group (GSP) to build a submerged pipeline on the bottom of the Black Sea, reads a release of the bank . EximBank and GSP have signed an agreement in which the bank agrees to guarantee a 70-million dollars loan to the oil group. The guarantee will allow the coming into force of an agreement worth 269 million dollars, signed back on November 19 by the GSP with Stroygazmontazh from the Russian Federation, according to ...
Romania has until 2010 to meet target for 33% share of electricity from renewable sources
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Romania has until 2010 to meet the national target imposed by the European Union of 33% for the share of electricity from renewable sources in gross final consumption of electricity, said the managing director of within the Ministry of Economy, Alexandru Sandulescu“Romania has to fulfill two compulsory requirements. One of them refers to 2010, when 33% of the country’s electricity supply must come from renewable sources. In this purpose, we will have to estimate the approximate gross ...
European Commission and European Investment Bank launch European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) facility
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the bank of the EU Member States, have launched a grant aid initiative to help local and regional authorities make investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy. The global fight against climate change is a top priority for the European Union and it is acknowledged that local actors will play a significant role in meeting this challenge. The European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) facility is designed to help cities and ...
Wind park worth 250 million euros to be built in eastern Romania
Thursday, December 17, 2009
An wind energy park to include 50 giant wind installations will be built in 2010 on the Deleniului Hills, close to the Moreni monastery, 15-km far from the eastern Vaslui city, Romania libera daily reads on Wednesday.The project was initiated by an Austrian-Japanese concern, which has been monitoring the power of the wind in the area for more than a year, in the end deciding to inject 250 million euros in this huge park.The Deleni commune mayor Vasile Zanfir told Romania libera ...
National Lignite Company to invest 37 million euros in upgrading
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The National Lignite Company will carry out two projects to upgrade its facilities and power grid and installations which total value is estimated at 37 million euros, the Economy Ministry reports.The first project will aim to modernise the high capacity facilities of the company's mines at Rosiuta, Pesteana and Rosia. This is an investment valued at 35 million euros, 9 million of which will be self-financing and the remaining raised in an external loan.To upgrade the Rosiuta mine, ...
Oltchim confirms advanced takeover talks with Petrom
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Oltchim Ramnicu-Valcea has confirmed it is in advanced talks with Petrom about taking over the petrochemical operations of Arpechim, the agreement following to be concluded as soon as the deal is approved by Petrom’s supervisory council, according to a filing to Bucharest Stock Exchange.The board of Oltchim said Friday it will hold a press conference entitled “The Biggest M&A Event in Romania”.According officials from the Ministry of Economy, the majority shareholder of ...
Copenhagen stumbles over climate aid to poor
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The high-level segment at the UN climate summit opened in Copenhagen on Tuesday (15 December), with UN chief Ban Ki-moon telling nations to "seal a deal" on climate change but warning that a deal on financial aid to poor nations may have to be delayed.Until late Tuesday, ministers were struggling to break the deadlock in global climate talks in Copenhagen, three days before world leaders are expected to seal the accord."In these very hours we are balancing between success and failure," said ...
'Climategate' divides scientists in Copenhagen
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Researchers have sought to speed up the ongoing Copenhagen climate talks by gathering evidence of the catastrophic impacts of accelerating global warming. But climate science has been disputed by sceptics who say such claims are unfounded. Recent research suggests that the scientific consensus within the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may have been too optimistic. A group of researchers, most of whom are authors of previous IPPC reports, said last month that sea ...
Climate summit struggles to overcome targets row
Thursday, December 17, 2009
With UN climate talks marred by tensions between poor and rich countries over carbon emissions reduction targets, some are now looking at the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a more solid foundation for a deal. With the Copenhagen conference now entering its final phase, new texts have been put on the table in an attempt to draw rich and poor countries' positions closer to one another. "In these very hours we are balancing between success and failure," the Danish ...
Romanian experts to build oil research centre in Angola
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The Romanian ambassador to Angola, Iacob Prada, announced last Wednesday in Luanda that Romanian experts will start building in 2010 an oil research and prospect centre, in the ambit of a cooperation protocol to be signed between the two countries next year. Iacob Prada, who did not disclose the amount to be spent and location of the infrastructure, explained that this cooperation between the two countries will be signed in the first quarter of 2010. The referred cooperation protocol also ...
LPG car system sales in Romania seen 50% higher in 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sales of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) installations for cars will rise next year by over 50%, at 28,000-29,000 units, mainly due to the increasing price of gasoline, according to the estimations of Autogaz Romania, a company that provides alternative fuel systems for cars."The price of one liter of liquefied petroleum gas is 50% cheaper compared with the gasoline, whose price will continue to grow next year, due to the European Commission's demands on introducing more ethanol into its ...
Romgaz begins gas production on seven new gas fields
Thursday, December 10, 2009
State-owned natural gas supplier, Romgaz said it will begin test production in seven newly-discovered gas formations and will deploy 40 wells to find other potential gas fields.“Subsequent to testing drilling works performed in the previous years, as well as the infrastructure works at the surface (gas collection pipes), we consider beginning industrial gas production on these newly-discovered fields next year. For these fields, the production tests will indicate the potential output ...
Oil Services Group builds gas pipeline in Soci, Russian Federation
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The Oil Services Group Co. (GSP) based in Constanta (south-east), specialized company in marine oil drilling, part of UPETROM Group, will inaugurate at the beginning of Jan. 2010 the assembly and mounting works of a submerged pipeline for the transport of natural gas on the Russian Black Sea side.According to GSP SRL Co. general manager Fanel Hahui, the contract in value exceeding 250 million USD, was adjudicated by Constanta company on November 17 following an international ...
Electricity production drops 6.8 pct in first 10 months
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Internal electricity production totaled in the first ten months of the year 19.160 million tons of oil equivalent, reflecting a drop by 6.8 percent from the similar period in 2008, whereas the imports amounted at 8.967 million tep, down by 36 percent, according to preliminary data released by the National Statistics Institute (INS).The primary energy resources declined by 18.6 percent in the aforementioned period and those of electricity dropped from the same period the previous ...