Experimental gas monopoly break

The first “private” natural gases in Romania will be supplied to the national gas transport system this year, possibly as soon as January, as part of an experimental production stage undertaken by the German company Wintershall.
Wintershall, the only foreign company to have struck natural gases in Romania in the post-war era will soon sit down with its exploration and production partner for the Transilvania Sud block, Romgaz Medias, to set the working schedule this year, the manner to finance the works and the ways the investment can be recovered, sources close to the deal say.
The foreign companies have invested more than $220 million since 1993 in probing for oil or natural gas deposits that may be commercially operated, without getting any positive results. The talks are carried out while the Germans expect the price of the natural gas produced by foreign companies in Romania to be regulated by a normative act.
The Ministry of Industry and Resources and the foreign companies that could produce natural gases in Romania have agreed on a price equal to 80% of the imported gas price, which now amounts to $100/1,000 cubic metres, after lengthy negotiations.
The average production price for the natural gases supplied by Romgaz and Petrom, the only producers on the Romanian market so far, amounts to about $40/1,000 cubic metres for the consumers on the free market.
The natural gases produced by Wintershall can either reach the consumers in the regulated sector, as does the imported gas, or be sold to the eligible consumers through a supplier. The price of the gas the consumers in the regulated sector have to pay will go up from the $82.5/1,000 cubic metres to $90/1,000 cubic metres at the end of this winter according to the agreement between the Romanian Government and the International Monetary Fund.