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The price of gas sold by domestic producers will be liberalized starting with April 1, 2017, but this does not mean tariffs increase for consumers, Niculae Havrilet, president of the National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) announced on Tuesday in a press conference.
This decision is based on a European Commission request, following the amendment of an emergency ordinance on Gas Law. ANRE official explained that the final tariffs will remain regulated until 2021 as required by law, but he noted that increasingly more consumers will prefer to change their supplier.
“We will stay in the regulated area in terms of supply rates, where the law stipulates 2021 as deadline, but given that the law says that every consumer has the right to choose any provider and any contract, from April 1, 2017 we will see a constant migration of consumers in the regulated area to suppliers who can provide better gas prices than the supplier where he is connected,” Havrilet said.
In turn, Corina Popescu, Secretary of State at Energy Ministry, underlined that final prices will remain regulated until 2021.
Havrilet also added that Romania could import 40 percent of national gas consumption this winter, as the price of gas on the international markets will be even with RON 20 per MWh lower than that of domestic gas production. He explained that there could be gas suppliers who will sell only imported gas if those are cheaper.
Currently, the imports mean 30 percent of national gas consumption, according to ANRE data.
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