The Federation of Petroleum and Gas Employers (FPPG) practically accuses some distributors of artificial price increases. FPPG argues that “under the current market conditions and without political-administrative distortions, the price increases announced by some distributors when supplying natural gas have no real economic basis.”

“At this moment, the evolutions on the international market and on the internal trading platforms indicate a decreasing trend of gas prices. The favorable weather and the optimism related to the forecasts of market liberalization have obviously led to an improvement of prices in all markets,” argue the FPPG officials.

”Romania has sufficient reserves of natural gas accumulated in deposits, as well as natural resources in operation, but also an increasingly high interconnection with different markets to ensure a healthy balance between supply and demand. With these elements in mind, there is no real reason for significant inflation, with market liberalization. We ask the public authorities for stability and legislative predictability that remove the factors that can create distortions in the market,” says the Director of External Relations of the FPPG, Daniel Apostol.

According to the data provided by BRM – a FPPG member – the weighted average price of natural gas at January 2020 level traded on medium and long term was of 78.71 lei/ MWh, and on SPOT platform (short term) it was of 70.81 lei/ MWh. Between 01.02.2020 – 10.02.2020 on the SPOT platform, a weighted average price of 65.27 lei/ MWh was registered.

“The FPPG member companies are confident that the market liberalization, starting in July 2020, will bring real benefits to both domestic consumers and industrial customers,” says the Federation.