Gas imports are high due to storage, Energy Minister, Anton Anton, said.

“We are now in the following situation: we are in the summer, when gas consumption is not so high, when we have to deposit for the winter, and, over the years, the Ministry of Energy, together with ANRE, ordered much earlier and said much earlier how much it should be stored and we said: Store as fast as you can, the prices are now low on imported gas, that is why more gas is imported, not for another reason,” Anton Anton said, according to Agerpres.

He argued that the role of ordinance 114 was to protect domestic consumers. “Ordinance 114 is in the Parliament, and we, as a minister, are participating in discussions.” Ordinance 114, in terms of Energy, has been given to protect consumers who are disadvantaged, as it is said and demonstrated. Vulnerable consumer was defined, the problem was that he was not identified. And he must be identified by the Ministry of Labor,” he explained.

The Energy Minister argued that gas imports are not related to domestic gas production, which he presented as constant. “The domestic production is constant, eventually decreasing by 2% per year, depending on what resources are available. For example, now Caragele (the new gas exploitation at Caragele, Buzău County) has raised a little the production but we are talking about 2%, 3%, 5%, that is, we are not talking about enormous quantities,” Anton Anton said.