Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Tuesday welcomed U.S. Secretary of Energy (SOE) Jennifer M. Granholm at the Government House to discuss an ongoing meeting of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC), hosted these days by Romania, and the strategic importance of energy security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and the use of energy as a weapon of pressure.
According to the Romanian government, Ciolacu said that Romania aims to promote the economic and energy cooperation within its strategic partnership with the United States of America to the level of excellence achieved in the field of security.
He added that Romania has the potential to become an important regional hub in the field of energy, and the American investments in the hydrocarbon deposits in the country, and also in clean energy projects, will contribute to achieving the goal.
„Romania is and will continue to be a firm, consistent and reliable partner of the U.S. in the region, dedicated to efforts to strengthen energy security in Europe.”
The PM also highlighted cooperation with the U.S. in a project of building two new units of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant and the investment in the Small Modular Reactors (SMR) in Doicesti, which will double the electricity production of nuclear power facilities.
Ciolacu also said that the partnership between Nuclearelectrica and the American companies NuScale and Fluor, through which the former coal-fired power plant at Doicesti is transformed into a modern nuclear-electric power plant, places us in the field of pioneering in this field.
He went on to say that Romania is set to increase its interconnection capacity with Moldova in order to secure Moldova’s capacity to supply from reliable sources and welcomed the similar projects developed by the U.S. in the neighbouring country.
Also attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacsu; Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja; state adviser Nicolae Comanescu’ general manager of S.N. Nuclearelectrica Cosmin Ghita, and U.S. ambassador to Romania, Kathleen Kavalec.
AGERPRES
