ANRE President Dumitru Chiriţă said on Monday that so far the obligation to store natural gas for the winter has been fulfilled in 97%, mentioning that it is possible that the increase of the import of natural gas is also determined by it.

Chiriţă participated in the meeting of the Committee on Industries in the debate on the Emergency Ordinance 114. He said that simply repealing GEO 114 without taking into consideration GEO 19 of 2019 would mean that the latter GEO remains in force and produces effects.

Asked about the increase of gas imports, Chiriţă said that it may be related to the increase of the gas storage obligation for the following winter, according to Agerpres. “During this year, ANRE established the gas storage obligation for the winter period with 10% more than it was in 2018. It is possible that this increase of the import is also determined by the increase of the storage obligation. Now the storage obligation is fulfilled in a ratio of 97%. We estimate that this obligation will exceed 100%, which is a good thing, having gas in deposits, we can better manage the situation,” said Chiriţă.

He said that, from a price perspective, there is information that in central and eastern Europe natural gas prices “are evolving from single to double.”

Chiriţă explained that the import price was lower than the price realized on the Romanian stock exchange. Thus, the price on the stock exchange platform in Romania was rarely below 100 lei per megawatt hour, while in Austria and the Czech Republic the average price on the stock exchange platform was below 11 euros per megawatt hour, or less than 50 lei per megawatt hour, ANRE representatives explained. “The import price was lower than the price realized on the Romanian stock exchange,” Chiriţă said.