Romanian government is positive about the exploitation of gas resources in the Black Sea and will treat the issue carefully starting in December, so that there are no discussions that would affect these projects, said Tanase Stamule, Romania’s prime minister’s economic adviser.

“Regarding the Black Sea, there is a strong desire of the Government that gas exploitation there starts, and the subject will be treated with great care starting with December (when parliamentary elections will take place ), so that all sorts of unnecessary discussion should not appear and affect the project. It is a priority for us to exploit those resources,” Stamule said.

He also referred to the importance of developing gas networks in Romania.

“We have enough reserves to cover Romania, but today, only 30% of citizens have access to gas. This solves the problem of deforestation, because many people still use wood to heat themselves,” said the prime minister’s adviser.

The expansion of the gas networks will also lead to an increase of the economic attractiveness in the localities that will be connected, he mentioned.

“When investors come to the Government, they ask a few things: the first question, of course, is whether there is a highway in the area where they want to invest, and the next question is whether there are gas networks. That is why it is a zero priority for these networks to reach as many regions of Romania as possible, in parallel with the development of the highway network. We have to use the gas we have, because who knows how the technology will evolve in the next decades and they will remain unused,” Stamule pointed out.

In the Romanian Black Sea there is a potential of 200 billion cubic meters of gas, according to the National Agency for Mineral Resources, but large projects are frozen due to legislation in the offshore oil sector.