On Monday morning, Romania will have a volume of 3 billion cubic metres of gas in storage, which means 97.7pct of the country’s total storage capacity, according to the data provided to Agerpres by Transgaz on Sunday.

Compared to the same period last year, Romania has by 701 million more cubic metres of gas more in storage.

The minimum threshold approved for Romania in the new regulation of the European Commission, of 80pct, was reached on September 17.

George Niculescu, secretary of state with the Ministry of Energy, on Thursday stated that the authorities no reason to believe that Romania will have any problems during the winter with ensuring the supply, if the thermal regime is a normal one.

„Unlike last year, we are starting with a very high degree of gas storage filling, over 97pct, i.e. 2.970 billion cubic metres. It is a very high percentage, which gives us a sense of security. This percentage will help us overcome without any problems an ordinary winter from the point of view of thermal values,” he said, during the Focus Energetic conference.

At the same time, coal production was increased, to compensate for the low-filling level of the storage capacity in this case.

„We have an extra 900,000 tonnes of coal in stocks, just to compensate for this situation. In general, things are looking good, we are positive that we will not have any kind of problem regarding the provision of natural gas consumers in the winter, as far as import flows are concerned, no problems have been reported. In conclusion, we are prepared for the winter. In normal winter conditions, we have no reason to believe that we will have supply security problems,” Niculescu said.

Agerpres