Digging for the Pogoanele gas feeder has started. Mayor Florin Dumitrascu said the first stage is 35 million lei from the Anghel Saligny programme, out of a total put at about 80 million for the town and the village of Caldarasti. Opinia Buzau saw the works on the ground; Arena Constructiilor had logged the 35 million contract in March, signed with 19 other awards worth 195 million lei.

On 4 March the Development Ministry opened funding for seven Buzau gas projects: Pogoanele plus Luciu, Scutelnici, Smeeni, Gheraseni, Tintesti and Balta Alba. Pogoanele is a new investment. The others are restarts. Local papers had sat for years, waiting for a programme window that kept not opening.

The main pipe runs along the road that cuts the town. Side-street branches come after the trunk. The topographic order, the mayor said, is Caldarasti then Pogoanele, though work can also run in parallel. The pressure-reduction station is planned at the exit from Caldarasti toward Padina, some three kilometres from the grid. That short distance was, for years, the hardest argument for residents to swallow: the gas is close, the connection is not.

The working date is the end of 2027, if weather and allocations hold. Info Baragan repeated the mayor's estimate: comfort in houses and a better chance for anyone who wants a workshop. A promise does not replace pipe. Pipe replaces the cylinder, if the station is energised and if the second slice, spoken of locally as about 4 million euros, actually arrives.

For a plains town, gas is not shop-window luxury. It is a heating cost and a condition for a depot or a small plant. Saligny pays for the public network, not the kitchen boiler. The household connection remains the resident's job, once pressure exists in the street.

Until 2027 the measure of success is not the press note. It is whether a flame lights in Caldarasti and Pogoanele, not only in the ministry file.

Image: Pierre Blache, Buzau Communal Palace, 2026, CC0, Wikimedia Commons; the county seat, not the Pogoanele trench.

Sources consulted: Pogoanele: work on the natural-gas feeder - Opinia Buzau; Anghel Saligny: new contracts signed, 195 million lei - Arena Constructiilor.