Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

has proven

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

reserves of 726 billion cubic meters (25.94 trillion cubic feet) and is ranked 30th among countries with proved reserves of natural gas. About 75% of Romania's natural gas resources are located in Transylvania, especially in Mureș and

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

counties. The largest natural gas field in Romania is the Deleni gas field discovered in 1912 and located in the Băgaciu commune in

Mureș County Mureș County (, ro, Județul Mures, hu, Maros megye) is a county ('' județ'') of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș. The county was established in 1968, after the administrative ...

with proven reserves of 85 billion cubic meters or 3 trillion cubic feet. Other important gas fields include the

Filitelnic gas field The Filitelnic gas field is a natural gas field in the Filitelnic village of Bălăuşeri commune, Mureș County, Romania lying in the center of the Transylvanian Basin, a major natural gas-producing region. It was discovered in 1958 and is devel ...

(40 bcm – 1,430 bcft), the

Roman-Secuieni gas field The Roman-Secuieni gas field is a natural gas field in Secuieni, Neamț County, Romania lying of Roman and from Bacău. It was discovered in 1992 and developed by Romgaz. It began production in September 1995 and produces natural gas and cond ...

(24 bcm – 850 bcft), the Voitinel gas field (11.8 bcm – 415 bcft), the Ghercești gas field (11 bcm – 400 bcft) and the Sărmașel gas field (10 bcm – 354 bcft) all with reserves larger than 10 billion cubic meters or 350 billion cubic feet. Currently Romania has the second largest natural gas reserves in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

just after the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

History

On the present-day territory of Romania, the first natural gas deposit was discovered in 1909, in Sărmășel,

(then in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

), further to geological researches on potassium salts. The first gas production was used to power the steam boilers in Sărmășel and the gas lighting of the alleys in

Bazna Bazna (german: Baaßen; Transylvanian Saxon dialect: ''Baußen''; hu, Bázna) is a commune located in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Bazna, Boian (''Bonnesdorf''; ''Bonnesdref''; ''Alsóbajom'') and Velț ( ...

resort. The first gas transmission pipeline was built in 1914 covering the between Sărmășel and

Turda Turda (; hu, Torda, ; german: link=no, Thorenburg; la, Potaissa) is a city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the Europe ...

, with the last being the first city in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

to have public street lights fueled by natural gas in 1916. In 1927 the first natural gas compression station in Europe was built in Sărmășel. Following the successful gas discovery many foreign companies started to prospect the territories including American, British, French and Austria-Hungarian companies. 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 Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

whose scope of activity was the exploration, exploitation, transmission, distribution and use of natural gas in certain regions within Transylvania. A prodigious period followed for the gas distribution business and the year 1941 marks the construction of the first natural gas pipeline from Mănești to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, while the following year a main pipeline is built for the transportation of natural gas from

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

to the capital city. After the unification of

and Romania in 1919 the ''Direcția gazului natural'' company is established at

Cluj Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in

, which later in 1925 was renamed to ''Societatea Națională de Gaz Metan SONAMETAN'' (National Methane Company). The first underground storage facility in Romania was built in 1958 at Ilimbav in

Sibiu County Sibiu County () is a county ( ro, județ) of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Its county seat ( ro, reședință de județ) is the namesake town of Sibiu (german: Hermannstadt). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Szeben ...

and in 1959 Romania becomes the first natural gas exporter in

, the destination being

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. 1979 represents the beginning of natural gas imports in Romania from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

then part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Production

The local natural gas production is dominated by two very large companies

Romgaz Societatea Națională de Gaze Naturale Romgaz SA Mediaș (SNGN Romgaz SA) or simply Romgaz is the largest natural gas producer in Romania and one of the largest producers in Eastern Europe. The company is the country's main supplier and responsib ...

with a market share of 51.25% and

Petrom OMV Petrom S.A. is a Romanian integrated oil company, controlled by Austria's OMV. It is one of the largest corporations in Romania and the largest oil and gas producer in Southeast Europe. Since 2004 it is a subsidiary of OMV. History In lat ...

with a market share of 46.33%. There are also several smaller companies Aurelian Oil&Gas with a market share of 0.38%, Amromco with a market share of 1.85%, Lotus Petrol with a market share of 0.13% and

Wintershall Wintershall Holding GmbH, based in Kassel, was Germany's largest crude oil and natural gas producer. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF. The company was active in oil and gas exploration and production with operations in Europe, North Afr ...

with a market share of 0.06%. In 2009 Romania produced around 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas (400 billion cubic feet) which represented 85% of all gas consumed in the country. Romania ranks third in the

in terms of natural gas production just after the

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 2009 the largest natural gas producer in Romania was

which produced 5.76 billion cubic meters (204 bcft),

came second with around 5 billion cubic meters (177 bcft) and Aurelian Oil&Gas, Amromco, Lotus Petrol and

produced a combined 0.24 billion cubic meters (8.5 bcft). Around 62.5% of the total natural gas extracted in Romania in 2009 came from the

. By 2025 the total natural gas production of Romania will almost double to 18–20 billion cubic meters (638–708 bcft) due to the commissioning of several new natural gas fields found in the continental shelf of the Black Sea. OMV Petrom and

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

owned

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...

and Pelican South gas fields are expected to produce around 6 bcm (213 bcft) in 2021 and the Black Sea Oil and Gas's Ana,

Doina The doina () is a Romanian musical tune style, possibly with Middle Eastern roots, customary in Romanian peasant music, as well as in Lăutărească. It was also adopted into klezmer music. Similar tunes are found throughout Eastern Europe and ...

and Midia Deep gas fields are expected to produce 1 bcm (35 bcft) in 2019.

Future developments

Austria's

and Romania are looking to develop the Neptun Deep gas field in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

at a cost of €4bn. The field has a potential of 10bn cubic metres per year as of 2027 but was held up in 2023 because of Austria's refusal to agree Romania's entry into the

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and j ...

causing ill will between Romania and Austria..

Storage

Romania has eight underground storage facilities with a combined capacity of 3 billion cubic meters (106 bcft). Of the eight, six are operated by

and two are operated by Depomureș and Amgaz. The Romgaz underground storage facilities have a combined capacity of 2.76 bcm (98 bcft). The storage facilities are located in Sărmășel and

Cetatea de Baltă Cetatea de Baltă ( hu, Küküllővár; german: Kokelburg) is a commune in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The commune is composed of four villages: Cetatea de Baltă, Crăciunelu de Sus (''Christendorf''; ''Felsőkarácsonyfalva''), Sântăm� ...

and in Bilciurești, Bălăceanca,

Urziceni Urziceni () is a city in Ialomița County, Muntenia, Romania, located around 60 km north-east of Bucharest. It has a population of 14,053: 93.1% Romanians, 4.6% Roma and 1.6% Hungarians. Demographics As the census of 2011 results show ...

and Ghercești in Southern Romania. The largest of the six storages is the Bilciurești facility located North – North – West of

having a storage capacity of 1.3 bcm (46 bcft) in one cycle and it is located at a depth of . Romgaz also has plans to increase the capacity of its underground storage facilities to around 4 bcm (142 bcft) by 2013. The company also signed a memorandum with

n company

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

for the development of ten underground storage facilities with a maximum capacity of 5 billion cubic meters (177 bcft) of which 2 bcm (71 bcft) will be at the Roman-Mărgineni facility located in

Bacău County Bacău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania. Geography This county has a total area of . In the western part of the county the ...

. Other companies interested are

GDF Suez Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...

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).

Reserves

Romania has proven natural gas reserves of 630 billion cubic meters (22.94 Tcf) and is ranked 30th among countries with proved reserves of natural gas. Most of Romania's natural gas resources are located in

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...

and the

with around 75% being located in Transylvania especially in Mureș and

counties. The most important natural gas fields in Transylvania are

Abrămuț Petreu ( hu, Monospetri) is a commune in Bihor County, Crișana, Romania with a population of 3,071 people (2011). It is composed of four villages: Abrămuț (''Vedresábrány''), Crestur (''Apátkeresztúr''), Făncica (''Érfancsika''), and Petre ...

, Bențid, Brădești,

Copșa Mică Copșa Mică (german: Kleinkopisch; hu, Kiskapus) is a town in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania, located north of Sibiu, 33 km east of Blaj, and 12 km southwest of Mediaș. The town's population of 5,201 (as of 2011) is significan ...

Cușmed The Cușmed is a left tributary of the river Târnava Mică in Romania. It discharges into the Târnava Mică in Sângeorgiu de Pădure.Deleni, Filitelnic, Firtușu, Ibănești, Laslău Mare,

Salonta Salonta (; hu, Nagyszalonta, italic=no, colloquially , ; ger, Grosssalontha, italic=no; tr, Salanta, italic=no) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, in the geographical region of Crișana, north-western Romania, near the Hungarian border. Po ...

, Sărmașel,

Sighișoara Sighișoara (; hu, Segesvár ; german: Schäßburg ; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Schäsbrich''; yi, שעסבורג, Shesburg; la, Castrum Sex) is a city on the Târnava Mare River in Mureș County, Romania. Located in the historic region of Transy ...

, Șamșud and

Zau de Câmpie Zau de Câmpie ( hu, Mezőzáh, Hungarian pronunciation:) is a commune in Mureș County, Transylvania, Romania composed of nine villages: The commune lies in the Transylvanian Plain. It is located in the western part of the county, from the tow ...

. The most important natural gas fields in Moldavia are Bătrânești, Berbinceni, Bilca,

Brodina Brodina is a commune located in Suceava County, Romania. It is composed of ten villages: Brodina, Brodina de Jos, Cununschi, Dubiusca, Ehrește, Falcău, Norocu, Paltin, Sadău, and Zalomestra. At the 2002 census, 88% of inhabitants were Roman ...

, Gherăiești, Roman-Secuieni and Voitinel. The most important natural gas fields in Wallachia are Bobocu, Boldești-Scăeni,

Bustuchin Bustuchin is a commune in Gorj County, Oltenia, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Bustuchin, Cionți, Motorgi, Nămete, Poiana-Seciuri, Poienița, Pojaru and Valea Pojarului. References

* Communes in Gorj County Localities in Olte ...

, Ghercești, Grădiștea, Mamu, Mănești-Vlădeni and Torcești. The most important natural gas fields in the Black Sea are Ana,

, Lebăda Est, Lebăda Vest, Pescăruș and Sinoe. The largest natural gas field in Romania is the Deleni gas field discovered in 1912 and located in the Băgaciu commune in

with proven reserves of 85 billion cubic meters or 3 trillion cubic feet. Other important gas fields include the

(40 bcm – 1,430 bcft),

(24 bcm – 850 bcft), the Voitinel gas field (11.8 bcm – 415 bcft), the Ghercești gas field (11 bcm – 400 bcft) and the Sărmașel gas field (10 bcm – 354 bcft) all with reserves larger than 10 billion cubic meters or 350 billion cubic feet. The natural gas reserves located in the Romanian section of the continental shelf of the

are estimated at 200 billion cubic meters or 7 trillion cubic feet.

Transmission system

The national

transmission system in

is owned by

Transgaz Transgaz is a state-owned company, which is the technical operator of the national natural gas transmission system in Romania. The company handled in 2017 a quantity of 12.87 billion m³ of natural gas. The company has a total transport capacity ...

a state-owned company. It has a total network length of of pipelines with diameters between and . The company also owns a 50% stake in the

Arad–Szeged pipeline The Arad–Szeged pipeline is a natural gas pipeline from Arad in Romania to Szeged in Hungary diversifying natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for the two countries and connects the two natural gas national grids. The pipeline attempts to ...

, a

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

from Arad in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

, with a length of and a transport capacity of 4.4 billion cubic meters (0.15 Tcf) per year, a 16.67% stake in the

Nabucco pipeline The Nabucco pipeline (also referred as Turkey–Austria gas pipeline) was a failed natural gas pipeline project from Erzurum, Turkey to Baumgarten an der March, Austria to diversify natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe. The pipe ...

, a

from

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Baumgarten an der March Baumgarten an der March (Croatian: ''Pangort na Moravi'') is a small subdivision of the municipality of Weiden an der March in Lower Austria, Austria. It has only 192 inhabitants. Significance for the energy sector Baumgarten has an important ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, with a length of and a transport capacity of 31 billion cubic meters (1.1 Tcf), a 50% stake in the

Giurgiu–Ruse pipeline The Giurgiu–Ruse pipeline will be a natural gas pipeline transport, pipeline from Giurgiu in Romania to Ruse, Bulgaria, Ruse in Bulgaria diversifying natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for the two countries and connects the two natural ga ...

, a

from

Giurgiu Giurgiu (; bg, Гюргево) is a city in southern Romania. The seat of Giurgiu County, it lies in the historical region of Muntenia. It is situated amongst mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of the Danube facing the Bulgarian city ...

Ruse Ruse may refer to: Places *Ruse, Bulgaria, a major city of Bulgaria **Ruse Municipality ** Ruse Province ** 19th MMC – Ruse, a constituency *Ruše, a town and municipality in north-eastern Slovenia * Ruše, Žalec, a small settlement in east-ce ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, with a length of and a transport capacity of 2 billion cubic meters (0.07 Tcf) per year, and a 33% stake in the Azerbaijan–Georgia–Romania Interconnector a project to transport

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i natural gas to

via tankers over the

. The national natural gas transmission system has an annual transport capacity of 30 billion cubic meters (1.05 Tcf). Romania also has four other pipeline links to Ukraine used for the import or transit of

. One of the pipelines enters the country at Medieșu Aurit in Satu Mare County in the North - West of the country. This pipeline has a transport capacity of 4 billion cubic meters (0.14 Tcf) per year. The other pipelines are used mainly for transit and enter the country at Isaccea in Tulcea County and exit at Negru Vodă, Constanța, Negru Vodă in Constanța County. The first of the pipelines was built in 1974, the second in 1986 and the third in 1996. The pipelines have a length of each and a combined transport capacity of 28 billion cubic meters (0.98 Tcf). They are used to supply natural gas to

, Greece, North Macedonia and

. Romania earns around €60 million per year from transit fees from these pipelines.

References

{{Economy of Romania Natural gas in Romania,