Arad-Szeged pipe allows Romgaz to break Russian monopoly

Romgaz Mediaş will use the possibility of directly connecting to the Western gas market through the newly opened Arad-Szeged pipe to bring gas from the Vienna Stock Exchange.

The move represents the first steps Romania is taking to loosen the Russian monopoly as regards imports of gas needed to feed the internal market.
As a matter of fact, Romgaz was the first company to test gas imports through Arad-Szeged pipe, with market sources specifying the state-owned producer was the only one willing to operate the import. Subsequently, Petrom also announced it started gas imports through Arad-Szeged.
Until now, Romania has covered its consumption needs by importing around 30% from Russia, a percentage that dropped because of the crisis. Many politicians mentioned the issue of the high prices the imports were operated at, but the problem has never been solved. The existence of an import alternative may change this, though.
"We want to start these transactions in mid-2011. I couldn't make an estimate at this moment about the price at which we could import because since it's a stock market, we're speaking of daily fluctuations. At any rate, there won't be major differences. (...) We could bring 100-200 million cubic metres of gas per year the Vienna Stock Exchange," says Francisc Toth, deputy general manager with Romgaz.