Information on the extent of most mineral reserves is unavailable. A delegation of Western petroleum experts who surveyed the petroleum industry at the end of 1970 made a tentative estimate that oil reserves would be exhausted in roughly eleven years at the current annual production rate of about 13 million tons. With a view to ensuring long-term crude oil supplies for the planned expansion of the domestic petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, the government has entered into economic cooperation agreements with several small petroleum-producing countries. The government has also discussed the possibility for joint exploration of offshore petroleum deposits in the Black Sea and elsewhere in the world with oil interests of various countries. In the meantime the government has been importing crude oil from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Libya in exchange for industrial machinery and equipment. Oil imports from these countries in 1970 amounted to 2.1 million tons.

The major natural gas deposits that were exploited in 1970 are located in the Transylvanian basin and outside the Carpathian arc (see ch. 3). According to Romanian officials, the annual addition to reserves has been double the volume of annual production. Gas output has expanded steadily from about 365 billion cubic feet in 1960 to 845 billion cubic feet in 1969. Natural gas has been used for electric power production in thermal plants, for space heating, and as a raw material for the chemical industry. Less than 1 percent has been exported through a pipeline to Hungary.

Western observers believe that imports of natural gas from the Soviet Union may be initiated in the early 1970s. This belief is based on information that a gas pipeline to be built from the Soviet Union to Bulgaria will pass through eastern Romania, fairly close to the major port of Constanta, which is far removed from domestic sources of gas. Negotiations to this effect are not known to have taken place.

Deposits of coal are small and, with few exceptions, low grade. Known reserves in 1970 were reported to include less than 1 billion tons of bituminous and anthracite coal and 3.5 billion tons of lignite. Fields at Petrosani in the Jiu Valley of the southern Transylvania Alps contain 98 percent of the bituminous coal reserves; 90 percent of the lignite reserves are located in Oltenia, in the southwestern part of the country. Open pit mining is possible in much of the lignite area.

In order to conserve crude oil and natural gas, production of coal and lignite has been substantially increased and is scheduled to rise rapidly in the 1971-75 period. From 1950 to 1970 total coal output increased at an annual rate of 9.2 percent, including a growth of more than 15 percent per year in lignite output. By 1975 coal output is to reach from 37 million to 38.5 million tons, which corresponds to a planned annual increase of about 10.6 percent from the level of 22.8 million tons mined in 1970. The production of lignite is scheduled to advance more rapidly than that of bituminous and anthracite coal.

Two-thirds of the mined coal tonnage with 56 percent of its caloric content was used in 1970 to fuel electric power plants. Only 1.3 million tons were usable in the manufacture of coke, in large part as an admixture to imported coking coals of superior quality. The severe and growing shortage of domestic coke supplies poses a major obstacle to the expansion of the iron and steel industry. In 1969 it was necessary to import 2.1 million tons of metallurgical coke and 633,000 tons of coking coal.

Workable deposits of iron ore are situated in the vicinity of Resita and Hunedoara in the southwest. Other known deposits, particularly those at Ruschita and Lueta, have a low metal content and harmful radioactive admixtures. Suitable mining and processing methods to handle these ores have not been developed and are not believed to be economically feasible. Domestic mines provided about 32 percent of requirements in 1965 but only 17 percent in 1970; by 1975 the importance of native iron ores will have further declined. Imports of iron ores almost quadrupled in the 1960s and reached a volume of 3 million tons in 1969. Most of the imports came from the Soviet Union.

Information on basic nonferrous ore reserves is tenuous and, in part, conflicting. The tenor of published reports points to a scarcity of reserves, low metal content of ores, and difficulties in ore processing. The great majority of existing mines are said to have only enough reserves left for a few years' production. Consideration has been given to the recovery of nonferrous metals from industrial wastes, such as blast furnace slag and metallurgical dross. For the time being, domestic reserves appear adequate to cover the needs of lead and zinc production and a portion of the requirements for smelting copper and aluminum. The bulk of bauxite and alumina and a substantial quantity of copper must be imported.

Romania is reported to be extracting small amounts of gold and silver. It is also mining uranium ore, which has been exported to the Soviet Union in exchange for isotopes and enriched uranium for use in experimental nuclear installations.

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