Almost half (45%) of natural gas customers believe that gas prices will increase after July 1, 2020. 34% believe that prices will remain unchanged, while 20% of domestic gas subscribers believe that they will pay less after market liberalization, shows an iSense study.

“Household customers receive with a dose of skepticism the news of the liberalization of the gas market. The main reason is related to the financial factor, but the ball is now in the court of energy suppliers to come up with relevant offers that will convince a fairly static market so far,” says Andrei Elvădeanu, Head of Market Strategy, iSense Solutions.

Even if only 40% of urban Romanians who have a domestic contract for the supply of natural gas state that they have received a written notification from their supplier about the liberalization of the gas market, the number of those who already know about this change is almost double: 78 % of domestic customers of natural gas companies have already found out what will happen from July 1, 2020, according to tvr.ro.

Bucharest residents are the most informed about the changes that will occur from July 1, 2020 on the natural gas market, 79% of them declaring that they found out about them. As for Romanians living in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants, the percentage of those who have heard about the liberalization of the gas market is of 77%.

Among Engie customers, 84% learned about the liberalization of the natural gas market, while the percentage of E.ON customers who have heard of changes in the natural gas market since July 2020 is of 75%. Regarding household consumers who work with Enel to supply natural gas, 66% of them know about the liberalization of the natural gas market.

Awareness of the liberalization of the natural gas market is considerably higher in the southern part of Romania, with 81% of domestic consumers of natural gas already aware of these changes, compared to 73% of domestic customers in the northern part of the country.