ROMANIA PARTICIPATES IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENERGY IN BLACK SEA AREA
Rompres news agency
4 Apr 06
Bucharest, 4 April: The recently ended Black Sea Energy Conference,
hosted in Bucharest by Romania’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
discussed various energy-related themes and presented energy projects
for the Black Sea area in the near future, along with existing
opportunities and challenges to the Black Sea energy markets.
Minister of Industry and Energy of Azerbaijan Natig Aliyev told a panel
meeting on the impact of energy on regional stability and economic
development that natural gas consumption worldwide has increased at
a constant annual pace of 10 per cent. He mentioned that Azerbaijan
possesses significant hydrocarbon resources which trading is part of
the energy policy of the country. He also pointed out that specialists
reckon the projects for the energy field have created an attractive
environment friendly to foreign investors in the country.
In connection with the Nabucco gas pipeline project, jointly carried
out by Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria, the participants
said this will have a major contribution to the diversification of gas
supplying sources as it will offer access for European countries to
important natural gas reserves in the Middle East. At the same time,
this project was deemed to boost competition on the domestic market
of Romania for natural gas, to consolidate Romania’s importance as a
country crossed by major energy transportation corridors for Central
and Western Europe, to boost related industries as a result of the
involvement of Romanian goods and services providers, as well as to
create new jobs. The importance of this project has been acknowledged
by EU bodies, and the European Commission included it on the list of
priorities under the Trans-European Networks (TEN) project.
Official of the Minister of Mines and Energy of Serbia-Montenegro
Slobodan Sokolovic mentioned the participation of the oil and natural
gas sector of this country in the development of transit and import
routes as well as to the interconnection of pan-European pipelines,
together with Italy, Croatia and Romania.
Fulvio Conti, Chairman of the Administration Board of ENEL, presented
the experience of his corporation in Romania following its takeover of
the local Electrica Banat and Electrica Dobrogea electricity suppliers,
at a plenary meeting on energy policies and strategies. He said ENEL
is contemplating investing some 400m euro over the next five years
in modernizing and improving the supply networks of the companies
acquired by it in Romania, in order to bring these companies up to
European standards.
Government officials from Armenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria
talked about the development of energy policies in line with the
EU requirements, highlighting the harmonization of their countries’
national energy policies with the EU principles of sustainability,
competitiveness and market safety.
Director with the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies
Janusz Bugajski pointed out the need of Europe to brake away from
what he said is acute dependency on the Russian Federation as far
as the supply of oil and natural gas is concerned. To this end,
he suggested that energy sources and transport routs be diversified.
According to him, 40 per cent of the gas used in Europe originates
in the Russian Federation, a percentage that might go up to 70percent
in some years.
Russian specialists presented a project for synchronous interconnection
between the energy systems of continental Europe and the Russian
Federation that might benefit 36 countries and 730 million
consumers. The attendees in the panel meeting on energy technology
and environmental protection unanimously agreed that today’s energy
systems are a threat to the natural environment, which requires the
use of energy resources as eco-friendly as possible.
Deputy Minister for Sustainable Development of Sweden Stefan Stern
shared the Swedish experience with the promotion of high tech
for energy, given that fossil fuels are becoming increasingly more
expensive. Social and economic costs have to be diminished by a braver
approach of bio-energy and biomass, the utilization of which would
lead to a reduction in pollutants.
The experience in the same field of Romanian Petrom company was
presented by Petrom President and CEO Gheorghe Constantinescu.
According to him, Petrom has steered production towards the use
of the most up-to-date technologies in the world in an attempt to
bring about a drastic fall in carbon emissions. Director General
of Nuclearelectrica Theodor Chirica talked about the importance of
electricity generated by nuclear power plants.
The attendees in the panel meeting on opportunities and challenges
to the business environment discussed how to improve the investment
environment so that each country in the Black Sea area may benefit form
as many easy terms as possible for sustainable economic developments.
Director of the Chinese Institute for Technological Research Xu
Xiaojie campaigned for regional and sub-regional cooperation that will
include as many countries as possible, indicating that the presence
of Black Sea countries in joint projects for technological and energy
development might be a model for cooperation among Asian countries.
Austrian specialist Hans Haider said it is vital for the European
Union to have a unitary energy policy. A harmonization of the
various regulations of the relevant bodies from various countries,
he said, would allow low-cost production and supply of energy. The
attendees argued that the problem with clean energy relates to price
sustainability, because energy could be produced using the beat
performing technologies, but there is a risk of such energy being
left unsold because it is too expensive.