Natural gas in Romania

[1] On the present-day territory of Romania, the first natural gas deposit was discovered in 1909, in Sărmășel, Mureș County (then in Austria-Hungary), further to geological researches on potassium salts.

The American success in the exploitation and usage of natural gas determined the foundation of Societatea Maghiara de Gaz Metan UEG (Hungarian Methane Company) by the Hungarian Ministry of Finances and Deutsche Bank whose scope of activity was the exploration, exploitation, transmission, distribution and use of natural gas in certain regions within Transylvania.

[16] Austria's Petrom and Romania are looking to develop the Neptun Deep gas field in the Black Sea at a cost of €4bn.

[17] According to the Romanian Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, given recent developments, Romania has the opportunity to become the largest gas producer in Europe.

[20] The storage facilities are located in Sărmășel and Cetatea de Baltă in Transylvania and in Bilciurești, Bălăceanca, Urziceni, and Ghercești in Southern Romania.

[21] Other companies interested are GDF Suez who wants to develop an underground storage facility with a capacity of 0.5 billion cubic meters (18 bcft) and EGL Power who wants to develop an underground storage facility with a capacity of 0.3 billion cubic meters (11 bcft).

[2] The most important natural gas fields in Transylvania are Abrămuț, Bazna, Bențid, Brădești, Copșa Mică, Cușmed, Deleni, Filitelnic, Firtușu, Ibănești, Laslău Mare, Salonta, Sărmașel, Sighișoara, Șamșud, and Zau de Câmpie.

The most important natural gas fields in Moldavia are Bătrânești, Berbinceni, Bilca, Brodina, Gherăiești, Roman-Secuieni, and Voitinel.

The most important natural gas fields in Wallachia are Bobocu, Boldești-Scăeni, Bustuchin, Ghercești, Grădiștea, Mamu, Mănești-Vlădeni and Torcești.

[27] The national natural gas transmission system has an annual transport capacity of 30 billion cubic meters (1.05 Tcf).

The pipelines have a length of 190 km (120 mi) each and a combined transport capacity of 28 billion cubic meters (0.98 Tcf).

image of a graph with some lines and many numbers
Natural gas production in Romania between 1970 and 2007
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Natural gas production by countries (Romania in red) in cubic meters per year
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Map of the South Stream and Nabucco natural gas transportation pipelines