The Minister of Economy, Florin Spătaru, spoke in Praid about the possibility of storing natural gas in the mining gaps, a project that he considers important in the current context and that would ensure Romania the necessary storage capacity.

“We have launched in public debate the rules of application of the law of mines, in which we have the possibility to store natural gas in the mining holes and to be able to extract gas from these mining holes whenever we need. So it is an important project, a project that can provide Romania with the necessary storage capacity, which, in the current conditions, is deficient and with their help, both Salrom and the gas distributors can benefit, investing in those large gas storage capacities,” said the Minister of Economy, at Salina Praid, according to Agerpres.

In his turn, the general director of the National Salt Company, Salrom, Constantin Dan Dobrea, specified that it is a storage capacity of several billion cubic meters, and the natural gas can be extracted as many times as needed.

“We have several billion cubic meters of storage capacity. The great advantage of using the mining hollow as a gas storage space is that, unlike conventional storage, in addition to the lower costs, gas can be extracted every time you need to. In conventional gas depots, at the moment, the extraction is done a maximum of twice a year. That’s all it allows, it’s about equalizing the pressures and so on. The fact that these mining gaps already exist, I do not mean those that are used for tourism purposes, can be used to store gas, as the Minister said – a great advantage, given the current context, in balancing prices of gas when necessary. Moreover, it also benefits the Romanian state…. Mining gaps can be found at all Salrom saltworks. The greatest depths are found in the Ocna Mureş area, where we have depths of over 1,200 meters of the mining gap, and there the storage capacity, apart from the fact that it is very large, is extremely advantageous to store at very, very large depths as is very easy to extract the gas to the surface when you need it,” said the general manager of Salrom.