Romanian Energy Minister Andrei Gerea said in a press release Wednesday Romania is particularly concerned with diversifying its natural gas sources and raising energy security in the region. He added Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and possibly Hungary will form a sub-group for the construction of the Aegean Baltic Corridor, to ensure the interconnection of these countries’ natural gas networks.
Gerea attended a meeting Monday in Sofia, Bulgaria, to discuss regional inter-connectivity in the natural gas sector with EU officials and officials of central and eastern European countries.
The Aegean Baltic Corridor project is set to interconnect the natural gas transport systems of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, to increase energy security in central and Eastern Europe.
Romania’s natural gas network is currently connected to Hungary and the Republic of Moldova, but these are not enough to secure independence from Russian gas. The European Commission has allotted financing in past years for an interconnection with Bulgaria’s gas system, but that project has not been tackled yet.
Romania ensures the bulk of its own natural gas consumption but still has to resort to Russian imports. The Romanian government estimates Romania won’t need to import Russian gas after 2020, when the country hopes to start extracting gas from the Black Sea.