{"id":10942,"date":"2022-11-13T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T14:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.adrem.ro\/we-will-probably-get-through-this-winter-we-must-be-concerned-about-what-we-will-do-after-that-for-the-gas-supply\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:50:43","slug":"we-will-probably-get-through-this-winter-we-must-be-concerned-about-what-we-will-do-after-that-for-the-gas-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrem.ro\/en\/we-will-probably-get-through-this-winter-we-must-be-concerned-about-what-we-will-do-after-that-for-the-gas-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"“We will probably get through this winter; we must be concerned about what we will do after that for the gas supply”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“We must not be too optimistic and imagine that hydrogen could quickly become a solution to the current crisis. The important thing is to invest, to be consistent and to understand that hydrogen could also be a significant source in the future \u2013 and I say maybe 10 years here \u2013 in the future.” Romania will get through this winter well in terms of gas supply, especially since a mild winter is announced, but the important thing is what we will do after that, how we will prepare for the future, said Corneliu Bodea<\/strong>, CEO of Adrem and President of the Romanian Energy Center Association, at the Natural Gas Forum. Corneliu Bodea <\/strong>said: “A hard winter awaits us from the perspective of the energy situation, which is delicate, because, otherwise, all the forecasts say that, rather, the winter will be mild and not hard from a climatic point of view, which is very important in the situation we find ourselves in. Romania consumes about 11-12 billion cubic meters of gas, about eight billion are from domestic production, the rest is imported. But, of these 12 billion, about 7 billion are consumed between November and March of each year, so practically more than half of the necessary amount of gas is consumed in winter, which is also normal. Of course, there is talk of storage, we have almost 3 billion cubic meters stored, we expect that during this winter period we will produce about 5 billion, through OMV and Romgaz, so we should get through this period well. We have seen that there are discussions related to the extraction capacity. We consume about 55 million cubic meters on a typical day of the year, and the extraction capacity is somewhere around 30 million. Of course, there may be a fear if, for short periods, when certain extreme temperatures occur, we have the capacity to cover the needs, but we also have the option of stopping certain large consumers. Unfortunately, some of them, such as Azomures, have already stopped production and we have nothing else to stop. Elcen, which is a large consumer, cannot be stopped because it also provides thermal energy for the Municipality of Bucharest. A few months ago we were more stressed about this winter in terms of gas supply, but now, personally, I think we have a good chance of getting through well. What is perhaps more significant to discuss is what we will do after we get through this winter. It is possible that we will be found in spring in March with empty warehouses, and the import situation will be the same, that is, we will not have the possibility to import gas from the Russian Federation. In addition, what we have found in recent years is that winters, although milder in terms of the extreme temperatures recorded, last longer. This is a very important thing, because one thing is our resistance, of the gas supply system in general, during a winter, and another is the capacity and resilience over short periods, that is, at extreme temperatures, of -10, -12, – 15 degrees Celsius over a period of a few days. So, winters become milder, but they last longer. We are seeing situations where, at the end of March-April, we have temperatures as early as winter, with negative minimums during the night, even snow waves and blizzards. The question is what are we going to do from March onwards? The second question is what we are generally doing next, in preparation for the next winter, because we must be aware that Europe imports about 45% of the 400 billion cubic meters needed from the Russian Federation. There is a discussion of replacing this source, there is a task-force within Digi Energy, led by Matthew Baldwin, a very competent person, to solve the dependence on the Russian Federation, but the alternatives are still quite limited. The European Union produces about 10% of its needs internally \u2013 without considering Norway internally. If we were to add Norway, we would probably reach 30-40% production, but we are still left with a major discovery. As far as I know, the capacity within the European Union for LNG gasification, which is seen as an alternative source, is about 150 billion cubic meters of gas, which is good, but there are also some challenges here. One of these challenges is the production of LNG, because it is produced from liquefied natural gas at temperatures of -160 degrees Celsius and at pressure, and in this way it is provided with a volume multiplier of about 600 times. So basically one cubic meter of liquefied gas means 600 cubic meters of gas in gaseous form. We also have challenges related to energy consumption and the liquefaction capacity of those who send us these quantities, I am referring to Qatar, the United States. On the other hand, we have problems related to the transport capacity. If we were to make a calculation, we would realize that the 150 billion cubic meters that we could have means between 1000 and 2000 transport ships. The largest ships can carry about 150-200 thousand cubic meters of liquid gas. I believe that it is a capacity that is not prepared for such moments, exclusively for Europe. Then there are the port capacities. Access to ports is not sized for this ratio, so we will probably have difficulties. I don’t think we will be able to prepare for next winter, also next year, to work under these conditions. I don’t want to say that it can’t be done, but it will be a major challenge that, assuming that we will not import at all from the Russian Federation \u2013 which is to be discussed \u2013 we will be able to ensure storage and consumption needs for the next winter. But we have a year at our disposal.” Regarding the future of hydrogen in Romania, Corneliu Bodea said: “I, personally, the company and the association I lead are very involved in terms of innovation and the use of new sources. I am very attached to the objective of fighting climate change, I am one of those who believe that climate change is a reality and the anthropological nature of these changes is obvious, and we, the people, have to do something. However, I am still cautious about hydrogen, that it could become a short-term solution. I would not want my words to be misinterpreted, it does not mean that we should not continue efforts to find solutions and to use hodrogen more widely, both in electricity generation, but also in other areas such as thermal energy mixed with gas. But we must not be too optimistic and imagine that hydrogen could quickly become a solution to the current crisis. The important thing is to invest, to be consistent and to understand that hydrogen could also be a significant source in the future \u2013 and I say here maybe 10 years \u2013 a significant source. Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and this could make us think about the challenges in relation to its use. We are talking about several types of hydrogen here, depending on the method. If we refer to green hydrogen produced by electrolysis, then we must understand that it is produced very expensively. The biggest difficulties in producing, using and consuming hydrogen in an energy process are its storage and transport, also expensive processes. I know of a project in Australia, the world’s largest hydrogen production project, there are extremely good conditions there because there is a lot of land available, photovoltaic parks with which you can produce electricity to produce hydrogen from water and they got stuck in the problem of what they do with it? They ended up mixing it with nitrogen, turning it into fertilizer so that they could transport it. Rather, I see green hydrogen in local, decentralized applications rather than in major applications. Regarding the projects that Romania is considering through the PNRR, to use hydrogen mixed with gas. We must understand that the PNRR project is a visionary project, but unfeasible \u2013 the idea of using hydrogen with gas in a large mixture to fuel it is an inappropriate idea from the start. In Romania, there are no well-developed technical norms for designing networks. Then, there is no capacity at the user level. We have the Hydrogen Institute in R\u00e2mnicu V\u00e2lcea, there are some very valuable experts, who have been studying this problem for a very long time. At a percentage of more than 5% hydrogen, the electrical appliances, the stove, the boiler, no longer work. So if we are talking about a major mixture of hydrogen and gas, as it is talked about in the PNRR, then we have to think about replacing people’s appliances, because they will not be able to use this mixture, even if the infrastructure would be designed and prepared and even if we would also have the hydrogen to put there, which we do not have. I would not like to discourage any kind of initiative and research on hydrogen, I congratulate EON which has recently started to do something practical in this field. I am in a working group of the Ministry of Energy related to PNRR and hydrogen, I have always said that companies that have experience in the field should be invited, because we have the chance to have in Romania extremely reputable companies at European level in the energy field that can offer us the experience they have in other countries and we can do practical technical projects to start understanding what hydrogen is all about”. <\/p>\n\n

Article taken from Financial Intelligence<\/a><\/pre>\n\n
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