OMV Petrom, Exxon and Transgaz Mediaș signed an agreement last week granting that gas production from the Black Sea will be taken in the national gas transmission, announced Minister for Energy, Razvan Nicolescu.

“The State has no obligation under this agreement. It is just normal that the gas produced in the Black Sea is to enter the Romanian gas transmission system. Just as normal as it is for Transgaz to be well prepared for that moment. The agreement terms are confidential”, said Nicolescu.

It is just normal the gas produced in the Black Sea to enter the Romanian gas transmission system

In 2012, Petrom and Exxon discovered a gas field in the Black Sea. The most optimistic estimates indicate that the gas production will start as early as 2020.

Gas price increases are no longer necessary

Further increase in gas prices is not necessary because tariffs were already aligned with the countries of the region, added the official. “We already have gas prices closed to those of the countries in the region. The role of this price alignment was not to have high prices, but to converge to the region prices. Convergence is now reached”.

Government committed to IMF to abandon the regulated electricity and gas prices. Population benefit from a longer period of implementation of liberalization gas prices, until 2018. This deadline may be postponed by one year.

Encouraging prospects

According to Razvan Nicolescu, Romania has the chance to produce more energy and gas than it consumes, by the second half of 2019. “We have the chance to join Denmark, as the only the European countries that produce more energy than they consume”, said Nicolescu. He added that Romania’s strategic direction should be to a balanced energy mix.

According to the INS (Romanian National Institute for Statistics), the primary energy resources decreased by 9.2% last year compared to 2012, to 30.95 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), while the electricity decreased by 3.2% to 58 94 billion KWh.

Source
Mediafax