Romania could give up natural gas imports starting next year, ANRE head says

Romania’s imports from Russia will amount only to 3% of the natural gas consumption, however it could give up imports as of next year, as the domestic output could cover the entire consumption, Nicolae Havrilet, National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) head, said on Thursday.
“We haven’t imported gas since April. And now, at this moment, the imports are zero. We expect this year’s imports of about 3%, but we import gas only for balancing. For example, if we have a longer period of frosty weather, the gas from the depots cannot be used under normal pressure. If next year’s domestic production will cover the entire consumption, then we will not carry out any imports,” Havrilet said.
The ANRE estimates consumption of 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas for this year, of which imports will represent only 3%, as compared to 25% before 2008.
Last year the gas imports represented 7.5% of the country’s total consumption. Regarding the local gas consumption, it decreased from 17-18 billion cubic meters in 2008 to 11 billion cubic meters of gas in 2014.
“For 2015 we expect a similar or even lower consumption of 11 billion cubic meters of gas. The reason is that six fertilizer plants belonging to InterAgro no longer work since April. They consumed about 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year,” said Havrilet.
Last year, Romania stored 2.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas.