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Romanian strategic projects for gas supply declared priority at CESEC
The officials responsible for the energy sector in Central and South-East Europe signed in Dubrovnik, Croatia a Memorandum of Cooperation and approved an Action Plan that includes several strategic projects for Romania.
According to a release sent by the Energy Ministry on Friday, Romanian Energy Minister Andrei Gerea attended the second high-level ministerial meeting as part of the Central East South Europe Gas Connectivity (HLG CESEC) held in Dubrovnik on July 9-10, where the participants signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and approved an Action Plan meant to speed up the achievement of the regional natural gas projects.
Several projects were included on CESEC list of priorities, among which the consolidation of the Romanian system in order to allow the use of the existing inter-connections and those undergoing development. Included were Bulgaria — Romania inter-connector (a project to be achieved), the extension of Romania — the Republic of Moldova inter-connector (Iasi-Ungheni) and the achievement of Romania — Ukraine reverse flow (at Isaccea inter-connecting point).
Efforts are being made for part of the funding to be provided by the international financial institutions, such as the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the release aid.
"The Action Plan includes several strategic projects for Romania aimed at ensuring a gas flow that should allow the energy independence. There are projects that are part of the energy strategy of Romania for ensuring efficient and stable energy mixture. At the same time, they represent strategic objectives for this region too and part of the infrastructure system by means of which Romania tries to have a consolidated position in the Energy Union", Gerea said.
He added: "In Eastern Europe, it is only Romania that has sufficient own production to cope with an energy crisis, which means Romania, besides the capacity of being energy independent, has a strategic part in the region also as an exporter of energy and therefore security".
With a view to speeding up the integration of the Central and South-East European gas markets and diversify the gas supply, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the European Union set up a high-level working group in this February. The group aims to coordinate the efforts for facilitating the trans-European projects that diversify the gas supply in the cross-border region as well as enforce harmonised standards.