ACTMedia: MP Iancu: Finalisation of AGRI and Nabucco West projects, crucial for Romania

The finalisation of the Nabucco West and Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) pipeline projects is crucial to Romania as its domestic production decreases by the year and shortly Romania will have to become a natural gas exporter, Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' Committee on Services and Industries Iulian Iancu told Agerpres in a recent interview.

'Gas from Azerbaijan is cheaper than gas from Russia, or, under these circumstances, we will put pressure of the Russian natural gas prices. The finalisation of the two projects is crucial to Romania. Why crucial? Because, on the one hand, production in Romania has fallen even this year by 1.6 per cent. Romania has recorded declines over the past years and even an accelerated one in domestic natural gas and crude oil production and we need to replace the lost quantities. On the other hand, although I have fought with my entire might for Romania not to export natural gas, the conditions imposed under the EU treaty compel Romania to export gas. As much as 80 per cent of the capacity of the Arad-Szeged interconnection pipeline is already reserved by big operators for gas trades in both senses. That means export is inevitable. This export will subtract gas from the country's basket and the quantity for Romanian industry and consumers has to be compensated for by imports. Or, import today, the version they offer me, is three times more expensive than domestic production and this is how they strike directly into the heart of the Romanian economy's competitiveness. Romania is continually losing competitiveness because it has to put up with continual rises in the most important cost, the energy cost. Then, the main measure will be to find an alternative to this cost, to reduce it. A perfect balance was stricken between Azerbaijan's wish to find a consumer market and our wish, as consumers, to find an alternative to Russia's expensive gas,' Iancu explained.  MORE