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Romania Coal
The energy program of the 1970s and 1980s aimed for
dramatic
increases in coal output to compensate for the reduced
role of oil
and natural gas in power production. The use of oil and
gas in
electricity generation was projected to drop from 50
percent in
1981 to 5 percent in 1990. When Romania's energy
vulnerability had
been revealed by the stoppage of crude oil shipments from
Iran in
the late 1970s, Ceausescu launched a campaign to expand
coal
production rapidly. Because of labor unrest in the Jiu
Valley, the
primary coal-mining region, he decided to develop other
coal
fields. But the coal from the new mines turned out to be
of poorer
quality and had a lower caloric content. Although a total
of
thirty-five new open-pit and underground mines began
operating
during the 1982-85 period, the initial output target of 86
million
tons annually by 1985 had to be revised to 64 million
tons, and
actual production amounted to just 44 million tons. Even
as late as
1988, only 58.8 million tons were mined. Poor
mine-development
methods, numerous accidents, pit flooding, equipment
failure, and
high labor turnover were the principal causes of the
industry's
disappointing performance.
Coal production could not keep up with industrial
needs. Nearly
three-fourths of coal output was burned by large
thermoelectric
power plants located at or near the major coal basins.
Large
quantities of coking coal had to be imported from the
Soviet Union.
In 1989 Hancock Mining Company of Australia signed a
contract to
deliver up to 6 million tons of coking coal annually for a
twelveyear period.
Data as of July 1989
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