Romania likely to end natural gas imports by 2016 – ANRE

A drop in natural gas consumption from Romania’s large industrial customers is likely to bring an end to imports in 2016, the country’s energy regulator ANRE said.

”It is estimated that next year Romania could give up on imports altogether, since domestic production will be able to fully cover consumption, according to the latest natural gas market analysis conducted by ANRE,” a spokesperson said.

Romania has not imported gas since April and has seen the share of gas from imports progressively decline since 2008.

ANRE estimates 2015 consumption will total 11 billion cubic metres (bcm), with imports covering 3% of the total. The import share in 2008 was significantly higher at 25%.

The drop in the natural gas consumption is linked to large industrial consumers, while the marginal gas imports are used to meet balancing needs in cold weather periods when the stored gas cannot be pumped out at normal pressures, the spokesperson said.

To ensure a minimum storage level of 1.7bcm, operators can store a higher quantity if they want to, ANRE data has shown.

Since the storage cycle started, at the end of April, 2.2bcm of gas have been stored to date. ANRE estimates Romania will have approximately 2.5bcm stored by the end of the storing cycle.

The news comes as two Romanian contracts for booking capacity on two different transit pipelines are due to expire in 2016 and 2023 respectively, ANRE president Niculae Havrilet confirmed last week.

Havrilet told ICIS that Russia has the right to use all the capacity in the pipeline until the contract expires but it is not clear what that would mean after 2016. ANRE has yet to reply. kirsty.ayakwah@icis.com