Energy companies and investors were subject of a huge pressure during 2022, and Engie had to recover an amount of 2.8 billion lei after financing the capping scheme imposed by Romanian authorities, Eric Stab, CEO, Engie Romania, told a conference.
He also said that investors were looking closer to Romania and how is it coping with the crisis during the entire 2022.
„There were concerns, especially with the measures taken by the authorities. There was of course, the need to protect consumer, because what happened was unprecedented. Question was more at to „how”. Energy suppliers were asked to pre-finance the whole support scheme. To pre-finance social aid. And in the context of prices going to the roof. We had suppliers in absolutely dramatic situation. Thanks God the prices have dropped so much, and that authorities understood that something must be done to protect suppliers,” he added, during ZF Power Summit.
„We had a huge amount of pressure last year…form a shareholders’ perspective…it was a cash pressure. Since the beginning of the support scheme, since November 2021, before the war, we had to recover 2.8 billion lei. We recovered in the meantime 1.9 billion lei, and we have 900 million now outstanding. And of course this keeps increasing”, he said.
He added that last year, also with the war added to the situation, was similar to the turbulences produced by a washing machine.
”We rediscovered how important the security of supply is, that it cannot be taken for granted. We have done utmost, since our presence in this country , to ensure the security of supply for our customers, we have been a very responsible market player. We managed, the entire sector, not just Engie, to mobilize and get through last year, which was very challenging in terms of the security of supply. We had in stock a lot of gas, more than 9 TWh, before the winter, in Romania, which is higher than ever, and which was a massive financial burden, due to the high prices and high quantities,” said Stab.
”For the next winter to come we will do the same, we’ll keep mobilizing. We have been very lucky so far with the weather. When looking at the gas in stock today, on 21 of February, and compare it with the level of gas on the same dates in previous years, there are pretty high levels in Romania, and also in Europe, which will help us for the winter to come. Europe has mobilized new sources of gas, there are new LNG terminals available and under construction,” he added.
