The European Commission has sent the Romanian authorities a letter warning that a new stage in the infringement procedures against Romania with regards to locking the gas exports might be reached, be it the Parliament approves the mandatory quoat of 70% of the natural gas to be traded on a centralized market, said Niculae Havrileţ, president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), on Thursday, during the investigation by the parliamentary commission of ANRE’s activity.
The warning comes after the Commission of industries and services in the Chamber of Deputies approved, on October 4, the law for adopting the Government Emergency Ordinance 64/2016, and one of the amendments proposed makes it mandatory that 70% of the gas to be traded on OPCOM, according to Agerpres.
“There is a letter, which was informally presented to us by Transgaz, which is in a direct relationship with the Commissionner, stating that certain elements of the Ordinance 64, as modified in the 4th of October meeting, would be contrary to the obligations that the Member States have to participate in the common internal market by improving the conditions for cross-border transactions. Establishing a certain quota, they say, as it is this 70% mandatory trading, would lead to the impossibility of trading and would basically prevent exports”, said Havrileţ, answering a question from PNL MP Lucian Bode.
He also mentioned that the EU executive has already started an infringement procedure against Romania on this issue.
“Romania is already summoned by the European Court of Justice in this regard, and this letter states that if Romania does not choose another solution the Commission could advance to the next stage in regard to this infringement action. And this, because the development of gas market is very important and there is this proposal, respectfully using a virtual point for trading, which would be a better solution than setting a percentage, which – a process somewhat unusual”, said Havrileț.
Thursday, during the hearing, Havrileţ was also asked by Lucian Bode why does he believe that after four years in which the Parliament has approved and praised ANRE’s activity reports, this year the report was rejected.
Havrileţ stated that the moment which triggered dissension between the regulator and MPs was April 1, 2017, when the gas market was fully liberalized. Also, another issue that has sparked complaints from the Parliament was that ANRE agreed with certain elements of the 64 ordinance.
“This is the first year when ANRE does not establish anymore the purchase price for gas, and it only checks whether gas purchasing costs are in line with the market price, and were made at weighted average prices,” said the ANRE official.
According to him, if the purchase price of gas was 60 lei per MWh before 1 April, the moment of liberalization, it increased to 67 lei during summer and to 71-72 lei per MWh for gas to be delivered in winter.
Havrileţ showed that if the prices would not have been liberalized, they would have risen even further: “If the market would not have been liberalized on 1 April, the calendar shows that the price should now be 78 lei per MWh”.
This resulted in a price increase of 4-6% for household consumers in the 2017-2018 gas year, said Havrileţ.
At the end of September, ANRE’s Vice President, Emil Calotă, said that the final price of gas for households might increase by 6% in the fourth quarter of the year due to market conditions. Subsequently, Havrileţ said that the final decision will be made by the end of October, and the price increase will take effect from November 1st.