Romania imported, in the first seven months of 2023, a quantity of usable natural gas of 956,900 tons of oil equivalent (toe), 26.4% (-342,700 toe) less than in the same period last year, according to the data centralized by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

The domestic production of natural gas was, in the period January-July 2023, over 4.367 million toe, with 4.6% (193,000 toe) over that of the first seven months of last year.

According to the estimates of the National Strategy and Forecasting Commission, natural gas production is estimated to rise at an average annual rate of 3.6%, in the period 2023-2026, after a decrease of 1.1% (to 7.343 million toe) in 2022, according to Agerpres.

In the last Forecast of the energy balance, CNSP predicts for 2023 an increase in gas production by 5.6% (to 7.755 million tons of oil equivalent), for 2024 by 2.3% (to 7.935 million toe), for 2025 by 2.7% (to 8.15 million toe) and for 2026 with 3.8% (to 8.455 million toe).

As far as natural gas imports are concerned, a sharp decrease of 23.1% is forecast for 2023, a trend that will be maintained until 2026, with an average annual rate of 2.2%.

Thus, for this year, imports of 1.845 million toe are estimated, for 2024 to 1.79 million toe (minus 2.8%), for 2025 to 1.755 million toe (minus 2.1%) and for 2026 to 1.725 million toe (minus 1.8%).

Last year, natural gas imports fell by 16.5%, reaching around 2.4 million toe, while exports stood at 470,000 toe.