The pipe which will assure the independence from the Russian natural gas could be useless for Romania.
After it was presented by the authorities as a solution for the reduction of the Russian natural gas addiction, the gas-pipe Nabucco could leave Romania out. If we won't succeed in closing agreements with the countries that are fueling Nabucco, we will be just a transit country for the pipe which crosses Europe and we won't escape the largest prices for the important Russian natural gas.
"Transgaz gave up three months ago to Romgaz the right of negotiating the acquisition of the natural gas from the Middle East, because the transport company can't sell the natural gas. If we will not close these agreements, we will not benefit", said Vlad Pavlovschi, research manager of Transgaz.
He also said that all the member countries of the consortium which are participating at the construction of the Nabucco pipe already had discussions with the natural gas producers from the Caspian Sea area. At a centralized level of the European Union, talks were made Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Romania is supporting Azerbaijan for its capacity of suppling natural gas for Nabucco.
More, the Russians showed their availability to supplement the quantity of natural gas in a project that is trying to split this optin. The six companies of the consortium, in order of the pipe route are Botaş (Turkey), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), Transgaz (România), MOL (Hungary), OMV (Austria) şi RWE (Germany). They will benefit from half of the transport capacity of the gas-pipe, the rest will be granted to other companies, through auctions.
If the negotiations will be favorable, Romania could benefit of 2 billions of cubic meters of natural gas, half of the actual Russian imports. The project should start in 2010, and the first delivery should take place in 2013. The total length of the pipe is 3.3000 kilometers and can transport 30 billions cubic meters of natural gas every year. ALTERNATIVES
Many projects, few successes
After gas-pipes like South Stream, North Stream or Blue Stream avoided our country, Nabucco isn't a real certainty. Romania needs alternative sources of energy in the conditions of the diminishing local reserves. So, balder projects were advanced by the authorities: a second nuclear power station until 2020, a Black Sea terminal of Liquefied Natural Gas and a submarine cable between Romania and Turkey that could transport electricity between the countries in the region.
The solutions want to avoid the classic sources of energy, but are more difficult to put in practice than the Nabucco pipe, to which will contribute six countries. Not at last, Romania signed the agreement of the founding agreement of the oil-pipe Constanta - Trieste which will transport oil from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Mores, Romania entered a regional network of natural gas transport (the Transport System of the New Europe-NETS) which will hold eight countries. The natural gas networks from Romania and Hungary will be connected through the Arad-Szeghed pipe, financed by Transgaz and MOL, and the link with Bulgaria can be made through the Giurgiu-Ruse pipe.