Romanian gas transport company pledges higher export capacities to avoid EC fine

The operator of Romania’s gas transmission system, Transgaz, controlled by the state, has promised to increase the transfer capacity to both Hungary and Bulgaria, in order to avoid a fine of up to 10% of its turnover from the European Commission.

The export capacity toward Hungary will increase 2.3 times, from 0.75 to 1.75 billion cubic meters per year, Hotnews.ro reported. This increase includes the capacity envisaged under the first phase of the BRUA project.

The commitment regarding the minimum transport capacity to Bulgaria has increased from 3.3 to 3.7 billion cubic meters per year.

In June 2017, the Commission announced it launched an official investigation procedure to assess whether Transgaz has violated EU antitrust rules by restricting natural gas exports.

In particular, the Commission's concerns that Transgaz would have resorted to such restrictions were based on the fact that the company invested insufficiently in the construction of the infrastructure for natural gas exports or that it delayed the construction of this infrastructure; the company applied interconnection tariffs that made exports of natural gas not commercially viable; the company invoked technical arguments with no grounds as a pretext for restricting exports.

(Photo source: Transgaz.ro)