Virgil Popescu tells the Romanians about the "hard winter" that was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, Kelemen Hunor, and this is because many people are very worried about what is going to happen, but he says that on the gas side, we should have what is necessary for the country.
Virgil Popescu says that by winter, Romania will have 80% of its storage capacity of 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas occupied, still producing large quantities every day, so imports should be reduced, and maybe that will last prices at a lower level then.
"It is a complicated winter. When you think of a hard winter, you think of a winter with very low temperatures, you think of something else. I would say a very complicated winter, because here we have to evaluate all the scenarios. From the worst scenario in which all gas flows from the Russian Federation to Europe are interrupted, to the optimistic/normal one, in which nothing happens to them.
In case of a pessimistic scenario, the worst scenario, we have prepared all the scenarios at the ministry level, with ANRE, with Transelectrica, with Transgaz, we are prepared for this. We are also prepared, and that is why we are going to various bilateral discussions, in various natural gas producing countries, to supply the amount of gas that Romania needs.
From this point of view, Romania is in a much better position than in most other European countries. The import of natural gas needed to last a whole winter would be 1.5-2 billion. Half of the winter has passed, because we are also talking about January - March, the winter that is over.
We have the opportunity to do this. Black Sea Oil and Gas has already started extraction from the Black Sea, we already have a surplus from local production. We have the opportunity to do this. The excess is partly stored, and a part is put on the market. Today we have 1.493 billion cubic meters of natural gas stored out of a storage capacity of 3 billion.
Romania has a different type of production compared to other countries. It has constant natural gas production. I can say that it increased last month to 24 million cubic meters daily at the moment. We committed to the European Commission that on August 1st we will have a 46% occupancy rate, we already have 49%. On September 1, we should have 57%, and on October 1, 80%."
