According to data requested by HotNews.ro, Depogaz, the storage unit of Romgaz, plans to invest around 500 million euros in the coming years to increase the capacity of existing gas storage facilities by 50% and build a new storage facility. The capacity of gas production from fields will also increase by 50%. This could ensure our independence from gas imports even in frosty winter periods, since we have empty warehouses for nothing, if the possibility of withdrawing gas from storage to send to consumers is technically limited.

Five gas storage facilities with a total capacity of 2.87 billion cubic meters are currently operating in Romania.

Now they are filled beyond the usual capacity, exactly 102.7%. This means that the technical reserve of gas is also used, as the Minister of Energy recently explained.

Romania has never had such a large gas reserve for the winter.

Why it is important to invest in gas storage facilities

Romania consumes about 50 million cubic meters of gas on a typical winter day. Domestic production can reach 20-25 million cubic meters per day.

We can take out 29-30 million cubic meters from the warehouses, but this is possible only at the beginning of winter, when the warehouses are full. As they become empty, the amount that can be extracted also decreases.

Therefore, at the end of winter, only 20 million cubic meters per day can be removed from the warehouses, and that is when the system is most vulnerable.

In addition, there were frosty winters in the past, when consumption reached 70-72 million cubic meters per day.

During those times, although we have gas in our warehouses, we have to resort to very expensive imports in the dead of winter.

Depogaz is making investments in the amount of 480 million euros to increase the capacity of four out of five warehouses and to build a new warehouse, the work of which will be ready in the period of 2027-2030.

Thus, the total storage capacity will increase from 2.870 billion cubic meters to 4.178 billion, and the production capacity from 29.2 to 42 million cubic meters per day.

At the Bilciurești warehouse, the gas delivery capacity is increasing from 14 to 20 million cubic meters per day after an investment of 142 million euros until 2027.

From the Ghercești deposit, the production capacity will increase from 2 to 5 million cubic meters per day, the investment will amount to 55 million euros, the completion date is 2027.

At Sărmasel, investments will amount to EUR 163 million to increase daily production capacity from 7.5 to 11.5 million cubic meters by 2029.

The Bălăceanca field will be able to produce 1.6 million cubic meters per day in 2029, up from 1.2 million now, after an investment of €36 million.

The plans also include the construction of a new warehouse in the north-east of Romania, in the Feltici region, with a total storage capacity of 200 million cubic meters and a production capacity of 2 million cubic meters per day.

The new warehouse requires an investment of 80 million euros and will be ready in 2030.