Havrilet, ANRE: The import gas bill fell by USD 1bn in 2013

Romania paid for gas imported last year by USD 1bn less than in 2012, ANRE President Niculae Havrilet stated on Monday, at the presentation in the Parliament of the Report on the regulated prices and tariffs for 2013, drawn up by ANRE. “In the electricity sector, deregulation for the non-household sector was done very easily, because the production is higher than consumption, but in the gas sector the situation is more complicated, because we must import. However, the import gas bill fell last year by USD 1bn, which means a plus in Romania’s external balance of payments”, Havrilet said. He reminded that the gas price for households would increase by 2% as of April 1st and for non-household consumers the increase would be of 5%. According to information published by the National Institute of Statistics, last year Romania imported by 50% less gas than in 2012. Romania annually imports around 20% of its gas consumption.