Romgaz Mediaş will use the possibility of directly connecting tothe Western gas market through the newly opened Arad-Szeged pipe tobring gas from the Vienna Stock Exchange.
The move represents the first steps Romania is taking to loosenthe Russian monopoly as regards imports of gas needed to feed theinternal market.
As a matter of fact, Romgaz was the first company to test gasimports through Arad-Szeged pipe, with market sources specifyingthe state-owned producer was the only one willing to operate theimport. Subsequently, Petrom also announced it started gas importsthrough Arad-Szeged.
Until now, Romania has covered its consumption needs by importingaround 30% from Russia, a percentage that dropped because of thecrisis. Many politicians mentioned the issue of the high prices theimports 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 makean estimate at this moment about the price at which we could importbecause since it's a stock market, we're speaking of dailyfluctuations. At any rate, there won't be major differences. (...)We could bring 100-200 million cubic metres of gas per year theVienna Stock Exchange," says Francisc Toth, deputy general managerwith Romgaz.
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