Romanians pay lowest natural gas price in Europe

The final price of gas paid by residential consumers in Romania remained the lowest in the European Union, in the fourth quarter of last year, namely 3.51 eurocents / KWh, despite an increase of about 20% compared to the last quarter of 2017, the data of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy shows.

Romania will have to explain this to the European Commission, which on March 7 took preliminary steps to initiate an infringement procedure against Romania for incorrect application of the Gas Directive after the Government capped the natural gas price for residential users under the emergency ordinance (OUG) 114/2018, Profit.ro reported.

“We asked for a two-month postponement [of the deadline by which we have to address Commission’s warning]. We were given only two weeks, less than 20 days,” said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, vice president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), in early April.

According to the EC, there are still significant price differences between European countries. The ratio between the prices in the country with the most expensive gas (Sweden) and the country with the cheapest gas for the population (Romania) is 3.3 to 1. In Sweden, the price of a KWh paid by households is 11.47 eurocents.

The gas price for the population in Romania was almost half of the EU-wide average price of 6.22 eurocents / KWh, at the end of last year. The gas price for industrial consumers in Romania, in the fourth quarter of last year, was 2.55 eurocents / KWh, below the European average of 2.62 eurocents / MWh.

Compared to the initial version included in OUG 114/2018, the Government has dropped the idea of capping the price for industrial consumers. Only companies that produce heat for the population will benefit from a preferential gas price.

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