PM: No risk for Romania to run out of gas. Greece-Bulgaria interconnector in use by the year end. Offshore law to be adopted in 1-2 months

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said that the war in Ukraine will undoubtedly have economic consequences for Romania as well, but he gave firm assurances that there is no risk of running out of gas.

He announced on Sunday evening, at Digi24, that from this summer or at the end of the year, the gas interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria will be put into operation, and Romania will be able to benefit from liquefied gas.

Moreover, according to the PM, the Parliament will adopt the offshore law in a maximum of two months, which will pave the way for the exploitation of Black Sea gas.

Asked if there is a risk that Romania will run out of gas, if Vladimir Putin decides to stop supplying gas to Europe, Nicolae Ciuca was firm: “No. With all the responsibility, we are not at risk of running out of gas. “

The chief executive explained that Romania imports about 20 percent of its gas needs, and in the immediate future this needs could come through the gas interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria.

“We had meetings and talks with the prime ministers of the countries in the region, the Prime Minister of Greece Mitsotakis was in Bucharest, we had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria. (..) We are in contact and our first target is to open the gas interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, which will take place in June, so that in October, at the latest at the end of the year, we will be able to have actually gas to be injected through that interconnector and then there is the possibility that we can use liquefied gas that can be injected through the Alexandroupolis terminal “, said PM Ciucă.

Also questioned about the moment when Romania will be able to extract gas from the Black Sea, the prime minister recalled the commitment that the coalition leaders assumed and that, in the upcoming period, the offshore law will enter the Parliament. Asked how long it would take for this to happen, Nicolae Ciucă said that he did not think it was more than “a month, maximum two”.

As for which option was retained in terms of royalties – the reason that made some investors leave – the prime minister avoided in the first instance to give an exact answer, limiting himself to saying that it is the option “most beneficial for the Romanian people. It’s a win-win. I can’t tell you”.