Romania wants to put pollution away in 1bn-euro storage facility

Romgaz, Transgaz and Complexul Energetic Turceni (Turceni Energy Complex), three of the biggest energy companies controlled by the Romanian state, want to invest one billion euros in a technology, which is burgeoning in Europe.

After talks running for years on liquefied natural gas terminals (the AGRI project) or submarine power cables that would carry electricity to Turkey failed to yield any results, Romania is now in a European-level competition with the biggest member states, to build a project for the storage of carbon dioxide.

Roughly speaking, the carbon dioxide that would normally be released into the atmosphere by CEN Turceni, one of the biggest local polluters, would be sequestered through installations, injected through Transgaz's pipes and buried as deep as 5 kilometres underground, in a carbon storage facility held by Romgaz. The one billion-euro project of the three companies, however, has weak chances of becoming reality unless it receives EU funding covering around half the costs.