e 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 sup