Keeping the reference price of natural gas by the previous management of the National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM) at an unadjusted level for 10 years, between 2008 and 2017, has caused losses to the state budget of 3 billion dollars, said Dorin Ursărescu, adviser to the President of ANRM.

He has made numerous accusations against the SRI, DNA, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the former ANRM management in position until October 2017, according to Agerpres.

„In October 2017, when the new management of ANRM took over, we found things of great gravity. The first thing that was found was that the reference price of natural gas to which royalties were paid to the Romanian state had not been updated since 2008, for 10 years, the Romanian state received royalties at an unadjusted reference price in 2008 at a price of 495 lei per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Meanwhile, liberalization of the gas price, so the selling price was already somewhere between 900-1000 lei. The Romanian state, during this period, has collected royalties at a reference price of 495 lei per 1000 cubic meters, „said Dorin Ursărescu.

He argued that SRI and DNA were aware of this situation, and all of this was publicly reported in the Court of Accounts’ reports. „The amount that the Romanian state should have received is about USD 3 billion.” „Who is responsible for these things?” All of this was public, reports from the Court of Auditors, reports from the Prime Minister’s Control Corps, and the state institutions, the SRI and the DNA – which is very active on other occasions – should have been important to them and a USD 3 billion state budget damage,” the councilor of the ANRM president said.