The head of the Prime Minister’s Control Body Valentin Mircea said that the European Commission’s (EC) investigation on natural gas market in Romanian is extremely serious and the allegations against three large players on the market Romgaz, Transgaz and OMV Petrom are serious as well.
Mircea added that the EC will probably send a preliminary evaluation to these companies in a couple of months and they could seek for an amicable settlement of the case with the EC.
In early June, The European Commission (EC), namely its Directorate-General for Competition, conducted unannounced inspections related to the prevention of natural gas exports at three large Romanian natural gas companies: transmission system operator Transgaz and gas producers Romgaz and OMV Petrom.
The issue of preventing gas exports is not a new one. For several years, Romanian Government tried to control and delay exports of domestically produced natural gas, which was reflected in the fact that Transgaz did not invest much in gas interconnections with neighboring countries. EC already launched an infringement procedure against Romania regarding this matter. In 2012, two largest gas producers Romgaz and OMV Petrom have agreed with the Government not to export domestically produced natural gas during the price liberalization period, transmits Serbia-energy.eu