The current practice of natural gas suppliers to send customers contract offers for the period after market liberalization at a price similar to that of previous contracts is a hooliganism, given that the purchase price of gas by suppliers will be much lower after liberalization, the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, Virgil Popescu, declared on B1 TV on Thursday.

“What the suppliers are doing at the moment – to send offers (for the period after July 1, 2020, when the natural gas market is liberalized), ‘sign with us’, that we keep your price constant, eventually we will lower it with a 1-2-3 lei, and it seems like a hooligan move to me, so to speak, because you can’t come to this Gas Program Release program in which you (gas suppliers) don’t buy gas at 25 (lei / MWh), but you buy it at 28, at 30 lei, so much below the price you used to buy it, and you keep the price to the domestic customer or to the industrial customer who is captive at the same price. Or, this cannot happen, this will not stay the same, I will have a meeting with suppliers to explain to them that the reduction or at least part of the reduction in the purchase price can be found in the consumer price,” said Virgil Popescu.

The Minister of Energy claimed that in the last resort the Government can intervene to limit the commercial additions practiced by the natural gas suppliers, based on the Competition Law. He pointed out that currently the price of natural gas in the Baumgarten hub is very low, about 25 lei per MW.