Romania will abandon the regulated natural gas price imposed to local gas producers under emergency ordinance OUG 114/2018, at the end of March 2020, two years earlier than planned, to avoid infringement procedures initiated by the European Commission, Economica.net reported.

The Energy Ministry has already inked a bill in this regard. However, the bill sets quotas for the volumes of gas traded on the open market by natural gas producers and suppliers. Thus, starting January 2020, natural gas producers (OMV Petrom and Romgaz being the largest of them, but not the only ones) will have to sell at least 50% of the gas “contracted” (as opposed to delivered) on the free market. Meanwhile, gas suppliers should purchase from the open market at least 40% of the natural gas “contracted” in a year.

Separately, in order to avoid excessive shocks in terms of end-user price, the Government wants to extend to 2024 (from 2022) the mechanism under which gas suppliers can recover losses incurred in the past (because of the regulated prices).

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