Junghietu: Building a Gas Storage Facility in Moldova Will Cost $16 Billion

Almost half of Moldova’s gas reserves are stored in Ukraine. According to Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu, our country does not have its own underground storage facilities, and the creation of such a facility would cost $16 billion. According to him, last year a decision was made to distribute the reserves: 45% are located in Ukraine and 55% in Romania. The Ukrainian side, as noted by the minister, has once again confirmed the security guarantees for the stored reserves and expressed its readiness to provide opportunities for storing large volumes in the future, reports unimedia.info. Junghietu noted that Moldova would not be able to store such volumes of gas on its own. “We do not have underground storage facilities, geological conditions, former deposits or depleted reserves where gas could be pumped. We do not have salt mines either. Such storage facilities are created in specific geological structures,” the minister noted. He added that even with a geological assessment, the construction of an underground storage facility would require enormous investment. “Investment in such an underground storage facility would amount to approximately $16 billion. That is a very large expense,” Junghietu emphasized. According to the minister, Ukraine currently has 22 million cubic meters of Moldovan gas in storage.