Moving the gas ring from the Romanian Commodities Exchange (BRM) to the OPCOM market should imply a compensation mechanism, Bogdan Chiriţoiu, the president of the Competition Council, says. “We agreed to have a single electricity exchange to concentrate the liquidity,” says Chiriţoiu, explaining that gas markets can not do the same, as both markets are functional.
“There should be a compensation mechanism … there is a difference between electricity and gas,” says Chiriţoiu, explaining to energynomics.ro that the mechanism may consist of sharing the type of transactions between the two exchanges – an idea that was not discussed with the resort ministries yet.
In addition, if the idea of a single gas exchange goes on, there is a risk of rising tariffs of the trading platform, but also of a ”lazy monopoly”.
“I have a certain frustration: after so many years there are not enough financial instruments … on the electricity market,” Chiriţoiu said.
Contacted by energynomics.ro, Victor Ionescu, director of the OPCOM market, did not want to comment on the takeover of the gas ring, explaining that any comment would exceed his assumed mandate.
Meanwhile, BRM may continue trading natural gas until autumn, when it is expected that OPCOM, the electricity market, will also get the gas ring.
Following the rejection by the Chamber of Deputies and the referral to the Specialty Committees of the draft gas law amendment, whereby OPCOM would have been granted exclusivity on a gas market where it was not active.
The Chamber of Deputies’ Industries Commission amended Law 64 by introducing an exclusive gas ring dedicated to the OPCOM, the electricity exchange, a state autonomous body controlled through the electricity transmission operator, Transelectrica. MEPs rejected the draft this week and returned it to the Commission, promising to re-address it in about two weeks. „But Parliament is on holiday between July and August, and as in the government’s program is planned to amend Law 123 in the autumn – probably by November – we expect the gas ring rules to be adopted by then,” sources said.
BRM officials say they have addressed European Commission representatives, who have blamed the possible translation of the gas market, a movement characterized as anti-competitive by both market players and professional associations.
