Romania does not need gas; it will be a gas exporter, interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Wednesday evening.

He told Digi 24 private television broadcaster that there was no disagreement with the American partners.

Bolojan was asked about the remarks he made to the Financial Times amid the controversy surrounding Kimberly Guilfoyle.

'There are three aspects here. The first is Romania's partnership with the United States or, for example, with the European Union. It is good for us to try to keep these important partnerships Romania has outside our domestic political disputes, because they have a major impact on us. If there was political agreement when we joined NATO and when we joined the European Union - two very important moments for Romania - then we should have the wisdom to leave these partnerships where they belong and work to strengthen them economically, politically, militarily (...) and so on,' Ilie Bolojan said.

The interim prime minister also spoke about the 'Vertical Corridor', a project supported by the Government.

'As regards the Vertical Corridor, one of the issues discussed with the US administration concerns projects in the energy sector, for example. This is an energy project, alongside projects involving nuclear power or major logistics infrastructure. But these are two different things. There are the gas pipelines and main transmission lines that need to connect the ports in Greece with Central Europe and Eastern Europe. So we need pipelines reaching Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia. Both the government I represent and the Muresan government would have supported this project, and we support it because it is very good to have an additional alternative. Apart from the two routes through which gas currently reaches this region - via Turkey, from Azerbaijan through Bulgaria to Hungary, and from Russia through Ukraine towards Central Europe - we would have a third option. This diversifies supply sources in the region. These pipelines pass through Romania, so this main pipeline crosses Romania, and what we have agreed is that Romania will support all the interconnections. If investments are needed in these pipelines, we will make them, but we have no problems on our own territory,' Bolojan explained.

He said Romania was part of the project. 'We are part of the project, we support it, and we also need to offer competitive tariffs, which we have done, so that the cost of transporting gas coming from the United States or other parts of the world capable of supplying liquefied natural gas can make it a viable source of supply,' Bolojan said.

On the other hand, he stressed that Romania meets more than 80% of its gas needs from domestic production.

Asked whether Romania therefore needed to buy 'American gas', the interim prime minister said: 'Even today, we only need a small amount of gas. Starting next year, gas extraction from the Black Sea will begin, which will effectively double the quantities we have today. So Romania does not need gas; Romania will be a gas exporter. We have communicated this, and we have no problem whatsoever with our partners - either the US administration, including the energy authorities, which have been informed of this reality and accepted it, or the US Embassy in Romania. We have no disagreement on this issue.' AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Florea; EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)

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