ROMANIA: The contract for the pipeline that will take the gas to the future Mintia thermal power plant has been signed

Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Energy and Ion Sterian, General Manager of SNTGN Transgaz SA, signed a financing contract for the construction of the natural gas transport pipeline to supply the Mintia Power Plant, in Hunedoara County. The pipeline will also supply other industrial consumers and also domestic consumers, according to a press release.

The project has a total value of 60.4 million euros, of which the funding from the Modernization Fund is 6.8 million euros.

The location of the works for the natural gas transport pipeline to supply the MINTIA Power Plant is in the extra-urban and intra-urban areas of the communes of Sântămaria Orlea, Bretea Română, Băcia, Cârjiți, Vețel and the cities of Călan, Hunedoara, Deva, over a total distance of 56.5 km.

“It is a step forward so that in 2026 this plant will be put into operation. We practically provide the raw material, the gas, for the plant. It is a grandiose project, the largest gas plant in Europe – 1,700 MW of installed power. This project means jobs for Romanians, we are talking about over 1,200 jobs during the construction of the plant, we are talking about safe energy produced in the strip, we are talking about the most efficient plant in Europe, with a yield of 64% and, therefore, of a substantial support that Romania receives on the path of green transition and replacement of coal in the energy mix with natural gas, a strategic resource to which Romania has access. This approach subscribes to my commitment to saving jobs in Valea Jiului and to the revival of the energy sector in the area. I have said before and I repeat, we will not leave anyone behind”, said Sebastian Burduja, the Minister of Energy.

“By signing the financing contract from the Modernization Fund, respectively the investment project Natural gas transmission pipeline for the supply of the Mintia Power Plant (including other industrial and household consumers), although it provides only 11% of the investment value, Transgaz reaffirms its firm commitment to to continue the efforts to obtain non-reimbursable financing in order to implement the strategic investment program in the development and modernization of the natural gas transport infrastructure. With a capacity of 1700 MW, with an annual consumption of 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas, the Mintia Power Plant becomes practically the largest consumer of natural gas in our country and will contribute significantly to the increase in Romania’s natural gas consumption . All the administrative-territorial units crossed by it will be connected to this gas pipeline, thus contributing to the economic development of the region and the increase of the community’s standard of living. And through this investment, Transgaz continues to contribute to the sustainable development of the national economy, through the superior utilization, within the country, of the gas to be extracted from the offshore perimeters of the Black Sea, to the increase and consolidation of national, regional and European energy security” , also said Ion Sterian, general director of Transgaz.

The project “Natural gas transmission pipeline for powering the Mintia Power Plant” with the support of the Ministry of Energy was declared a project of national importance in the field of natural gas. Transgaz has submitted, through the Ministry of Energy, a number of 12 projects for the expansion and modernization of the natural gas transport infrastructure, with four projects approved so far to be financed from the Modernization Fund.

The Modernization Fund (FM) is made up of the revenues obtained by auctioning on the market 2% of greenhouse gas emission certificates (GHG) at the EU level, for the period 2021-2030, with Romania having allocated a percentage of 11.98 %, which represents a budget of over 15 billion euros that can be used until 2030.