Romania is pitching itself as an energy power through new offshore gas drilling projects, expansion of its nuclear capacity and a second wave of renewables investment.

Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s minister of energy, tells fDi that the country’s goal is to have energy leadership for the whole Southeast Europe region. But he cautions this must be based on the reality of the “energy trilemma” — the need for energy to be secure, competitively priced and green. 

Romania has one of the most diversified energy mixes in the EU, with hydroelectric power plants, renewables capacity, its own fossil fuel reserves, a history of nuclear energy and one of the bloc’s lowest net energy importers — at just 10.9% in 2021. Romania’s medium- to long-term plan is to use gas and nuclear as baseload production to help accommodate as much intermittent renewables production as possible and build out storage capacity.

Gas developments

In June 2023, Austria’s OMV Petrov reached a final investment decision on its €4bn plans in the Black Sea. In the Neptun Deep offshore block, OMV is co-developing two gas fields with Romgaz, the country’s largest supplier, with an expected production of 140,000 barrels per day from 2027. This will make Romania EU’s largest producer and self-sufficient in gas. 

“[Neptune Deep is] a way to help the Republic of Moldova, possibly Ukraine, and other neighbouring countries with our gas reserves,” says Mr Burduja. He continues that Hungary is still dependent on Russian gas and could use alternative suppliers such as Romania.

Before 2027, the goal is to grow gas-intensive industries in Romania like pharmaceuticals and fertilisers, adds Mr Burduja, “We can create value from this gas and not just export it or burn it in our stores.” 

Not everyone is welcoming of the plan. Greenpeace activists from Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic staged a protest on March 27 against the Neptun project outside OMV Petrom’s headquarters in Bucharest. They painted “No new gas” in large yellow letters on the company’s building.

The Romanian government’s strategy is to rely on gas as a transition fuel over the short- to medium-term, according to Mr Burduja. Coal-fired power plants are being closed and replaced with gas-fired ones, including a 1700-megawatt gas-fired plant in Mintia, western Romania, scheduled to be finalised half by the first half of May 2025.

Nuclear independence

Romania’s plan to generate more baseload energy is also underpinned by nuclear power. The drive to generate electricity this way began in Communist times under Nicolae Ceaușescu, who led Romania with an iron fist for 25 years before being overthrown and executed in 1989.

“Romania has a long-standing tradition in the nuclear sector, dating back to the 1970s, where we made the strategic decision to rely on Canadian technology called Candu,” says Mr Burduja. “This was very different from whatever anybody else behind the Iron Curtain decided, which was to go to the Soviet Union for technology, fuel and so forth.”

There are currently two reactors in operation at Cernavodă’s nuclear power plant, which is about an hour’s drive from the port of Constanța on Romania’s Black Sea coast. In November 2023, the Canadian government signed a deal with local engineering company AtkinsRéalis and Romania’s state nuclear operator Nuclearelectrica to refurbish a Candu reactor at Cernavodă.

Another two large-scale reactors are scheduled to be brought into operation by 2031 and 2032, according to Mr Burduja, who is also excited by small nuclear modular reactors (SMRs). He says the “very ambitious” goal is for Romania to be among the first countries in the world to have SMRs up and running by a target date of 2029.

Renewables bonanza

Figures from fDi Markets indicate a surge of capital going into Romania’s energy sector. Last year, foreign renewables developers pledged $3.1bn to solar and wind projects in Romania, its highest for a decade. 

This new wave of renewables in Romania is expected to bring significantly more generation capacity into the market. The country will also launch its first contract for difference (CfD) auctions later this year, which aims to encourage developers to commit to build generation capacity of five gigawatts of combined wind and solar capacity in the next two years.  

The CfD will guarantee a price of electricity for the next 15 years — when the price of electricity goes below the strike price, the government will pay developers the difference, while developers will reimburse the government whenever the price goes above this strike price.

Mr Burduja is also keen for Romania to play a role in the build out of European energy supply chains. “We don't want to subsidise production in other parts of the globe that don’t follow the same rules of a market economy, rule of law and so forth,” he says, in a veiled reference to China’s dominance in solar and wind supply chains.

“For Europe to pour all this money into the green transition and not have its own supply chain is a huge loss and a huge vulnerability. There are critical components of this energy infrastructure that could be subject to security risks,” says Mr Burduja, referring to the risk of cyber attacks.

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