You can’t forge iron without a hammer – everything takes time. But from experience, we all know how challenging it can be to keep perspective, especially when viewing things through our own (often biased) lens. The transition to renewable energy is a prime example of this.

Gas and oil have become taboo words – haven’t they? Well, it’s not that simple. Different rules apply to different countries, largely due to regional disparities. First and foremost is a country’s energy security in relation to the transition period toward cleaner sources. Of course, no one should be left without energy.

From Coal to Gas and Nuclear Energy
Some countries still heavily rely on fossil fuels like coal. In such cases, gas serves as a relatively cleaner alternative. To support the shift to a low-carbon economy, European funds subsidize gas projects as a stopgap measure to reduce dependency on more polluting fuels like coal.

Practical and Visible Steps
Romania, a member of the EU since 2007, exemplifies this approach. They are working to phase out gas, but the challenges are significant. This reflects the complex reality of an energy transition where not all countries can adapt to the demands of a low-carbon future at the same pace and capacity.

Selmers Provides Process Line for Coating Factory

160 km pipeline from the Black Sea to Romania.

Selmers, known for its traditional expertise, provides the machinery for a new gas pipeline project from the Black Sea to Romania, called Project Neptun Deep. This project involves steel pipes coated with concrete for weighting. Selmers provides the machines for a client coating these pipe segments. The entire pipeline will span an impressive 160 kilometers!

Honoring Traditions and Embracing Innovation
Since 1966, Selmers has built process lines and machines for producing coated pipes for oil and gas pipelines. But times change, and today, they are giving old technology a new twist. For example, they now use modern control techniques extensively. Think of remote operations with an electronics cabinet that controls the machines, making them much safer and more efficient.

Traceability is Key
In the past, nothing could be measured, but if a problem arises now, they can trace it back in detail to the manufacturing process. From the loose pipe sections entering the factory to the moment they leave. Each pipe is tracked with barcodes, the weight of incoming and outgoing pipes is logged, data is linked, coating types are recorded, the thickness of the coating, damage – verything you can think of.

Avoiding a Black-and-White Perspective
In the future, these same pipelines could transport hydrogen, for example, something the client is actively exploring. Pipelines coated with Selmers’ machines are practically indestructible. The narrative for energy transition is therefore not black or white but grey, like a dotted line charting the course to a better world, where everyone does what is feasible.

Here you see the complete procesline in the factory with Selmers machines coating the pipes with concrete.