Romania will have eased its dependency on Russian energy sources by next winter, the country’s Energy Minister Virgil Popescu has affirmed after announcing Romania has commenced gas production in the Black Sea.
“Romania will have gas from other sources next winter, including the Black Sea,” Popescu wrote in a post on his social media platforms on Tuesday. “Tests are already underway to introduce the first gas molecule into the national transport system,” he added.
“Starting this year, we will have an extra billion cubic meters of gas,” Popescu wrote, explaining that gas producer Romgaz will take over production from Exxon in the deep-water offshore Neptun Deep gas field.
“Through this transaction, Romgaz also takes over the technology and the related contracts for starting the works, so that in 2026 we already have natural gas, to be used as much as possible in Romania,” the minister added.
Popescu clarified that the gas fields being used to advance Romania’s gas production were not situated in the disputed territory of Snake Island, a small island in the Black Sea currently contested by Romania and Russia.
Romania is already less dependent on Russian gas than most other central European countries. On a typical winter day, Romania uses 40 million cubic meters of gas, of which some 24 million cubic meters come from land-based domestic extraction. The rest, however, albeit via three different routes, all comes from Russia.
