Part of the Romanian industry, such as the metallurgical one, has reduced gas consumption against the backdrop of the decrease in production due to market considerations, due to the reduction in orders and not due to the availability of gas, the Minister of Economy, Florin Spataru, said in Sibiu, in the context of a question regarding to the measure of voluntary reduction of gas consumption at EU level by 15%, according to TVR.
Asked about the industrial sectors considered non-essential and which could be affected by a possible decision to reduce gas consumption, the Minister of Economy said that industry, generally heavy, is not included in the category of essential ones and pointed out that, although they do not have were problems related to the availability of gas, some of the companies reduced consumption according to the market.
“At the EC level, the possibility of a voluntary 15% reduction in gas consumption was discussed. Industry, in general, heavy industry, according to the definitions in force, is not included in the category of essential industries. (…) There is a very clear definition at the level European, we are talking about critical sectors and we know that the population and energy production are critical sectors where no action will be taken. For the other industrial sectors, as far as I know, there is an order of the Ministry of Energy that says how to act in crisis situations. A order that was published in April of this year,” said Florin Spataru, quoted by Agerpres.
The minister emphasized that there is currently no state initiative to reduce gas supplies to the industry.
“We had discussions at the Ministry of Economy with business associations and companies to identify these challenges and also invited the Ministry of Energy to clarify the way in which they will be with the companies, the way in which the gas supply contracts will be continued. At the moment there are ongoing discussions, a good part of these companies for objective reasons have reduced their consumption, but they have reduced their consumption for market reasons, the availability of raw materials and the availability of the delivery market, and we do not have in this moment a clear objective in reducing gas consumption for these companies. Of course, each one will analyze and optimize its production processes, in order to still have optimized costs. But we are not talking now about an initiative of the Romanian state to reduce gas supplies to the industry. (…) Discussions will continue and I hope that the industry will have power supply and gas supply contracts as re to give them a certain predictability. I cannot give you a time horizon for the completion of these discussions”, added the Minister of Economy.
Florin Spătaru said that part of the metallurgical industry has reduced gas consumption, given the decrease in production, as a result of the decrease in orders.
“We had discussions with the metallurgical industry, with the industry producing construction materials, who exposed us the challenges they have, some of them, yes (they reduced consumption n.r.), but for market reasons, not for of gas availability. Part of the metallurgical industry has reduced production capacity because their number of orders has been reduced, then it’s normal, then consumption decreases,” the minister also said.
Florin Spătaru pointed out that, currently, our country has a gas reserve of 1.8 billion cubic meters, representing 55% of the gas stock for the winter period, being exceeded by about 10% compared to the intermediate target of storage until August 1.
Spătaru mentioned that, taking into account the current gas stock level and the situation from the previous year, there will be enough natural gas for the next winter period.
“Normally, at this moment we should have had a reserve stored somewhere at 45% and we have exceeded this reserve by somewhere at 10%. This means that we will have enough gas for the winter period. We are talking about the storage capacities that were assumed and which were declared at the EC level. (…) For now, if we look at what happened in 2021, in December 2021 there were no gas interruptions, the industry worked, of course, taking into account the projects on that they have and the strategy they had for operation. For example, Azomureş entered the maintenance process and then they closed some of the capacities. It depends on the strategy of each company, there are private companies that define their strategy depending on the market,” added the Minister of Economy.