Romanian largest oil and gas company OMV Petrom has recently opened another two small natural-gas fired power plants, reaching a total of 40 such units with combined installed capacity of 100 MW, which cover about 65 % of electricity consumption of the company’s Upstream division.
Last week, the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) has granted operational licenses to OMV Petrom for two small gas-fired plants – 1.3 MW Park 3 Oarja and 1.45 MW Park 1 Baicoi Vest Depot.
“Gas to power” power plants are thermal power plants similar to the conventional ones, but with much smaller capacities, located right in the area of oil and gas deposits. They use the well gases extracted from the oil fields, which also contain associated gases, gases that cannot be exploited commercially because they are far from a transport infrastructure, as fuel for their operation. Therefore, in addition to the electricity produced, the company uses an energy resource that it extracts anyway and that would otherwise have been wasted, given that these gases cannot be transported, treated and subsequently sold.
