Natural gas “will be in our neighbourhood for many years,” Michalis Thomadakis, head of strategy and development at Greek TSO DESFA, said on the sidelines of Energypress’s renewables and storage forum. Remarks carried by Știri pe Surse link gas to power-system stability in Greece and the wider South-East Europe as renewables expand.

Thomadakis noted that Greece is building about 2.5 GW of new gas-fired plants, while countries to the north — from the Western Balkans to Romania and Poland — are replacing coal with gas for security of supply and cost. In his view, gas units remain needed to balance the grid, not only as baseload.

Against that backdrop he stressed the Vertical Corridor, the initiative aimed at more flexible gas flows into SE Europe. “For five years all the managers have worked very hard to unify how existing natural-gas infrastructures operate,” he said, referring to coordinated network access and storage in Balkan countries.

Romania is already on the Vertical Corridor route through Transgaz. In September 2026 in Thessaloniki a memorandum was signed to extend the initiative into the Western Balkans, bringing in Serbian and North Macedonian operators — a step also confirmed in Transgaz releases and regional coverage.

Thomadakis left open whether the region still needs new gas infrastructure and warned the Vertical Corridor modelling exercise will take time. The message is an operator’s view of gas as a stability reserve amid rising renewables — not a new Romania-specific investment announcement.

Source: The Vertical Corridor and SE Europe’s natural-gas needs (Știri pe Surse); confirmation: Vertical Corridor MoU — Western Balkans expansion (Transgaz)