Natural gas in Romania

Energy companies OMV Petrom and Romgaz on Wednesday backed plans to develop the Domino and Pelican Sud commercial natural gas fields in the Romanian Neptun Deep perimeter in the Black Sea.

The two companies will invest up to 4 billion euros for the development phase of the project, which will generate production of about 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas over ten years.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez has said that another exploratory natural gas well could be drilled in a field in the south or west of the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea this year.

The first Romanian gas molecule in the Black Sea will be drilled this year by the Black Sea Oil&Gas company from the Aurora perimeter, and from the Neptune Deep area it will probably happen in 2025, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu said on Monday evening on private B1 TV broadcaster.

In 2021, a market test will be carried out to double the transport capacity of the TAP pipeline to 20 billion cubic meters per year

Turkey will increase its annual natural gas storage capacity to 11 billion cubic meters (bcm) by 2023, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said on July 10 in Istanbul.        

Turkey's Tuz Lake gas storage facility, which is expected to increase capacity from 1.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) to as much as 5 bcm per year, was opened in an official ceremony on Feb. 10 in the Central Anatolian province of Aksaray. 

Turkey plans to drill a deep water oil well in the western part of the Black Sea in 2018, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said Nov. 8, adding that the country was also planning to bring the Akkuyu nuclear power plant online by 2023. 

The Austrian company Habau is to complete the long-anticipated first gas interconnector between Romania and Bulgaria by August 2016 after it signed a contract with the gas operators of the two countries - Transgaz and Bulgartransgaz in Sofia on Wednesday.

Poor infrastructure is to blame for recent electricity cuts across Turkey, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak has said, noting that the government would modernize over 85 percent of the infrastructure for 18 billion Turkish Liras.

The minister said the outmoded and inefficient physical infrastructure had played a huge role in triggering power cuts across Turkey, according to sources. 

Turkey is planning to increase its annual natural gas storage capacity by four billion cubic meters (bcm) through a Turkish and foreign partnership, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Oct. 15.