Emergency state lifted as Russian gas arrives

• The Thermal Power Plants still need the fuel that has been contracted through direct negotiation

The resumption of gas imports from Russia will lead to the lifting of the emergency state instated in the Romanian energy sector. Irina Duică, Sales Manager for "Electrocentrale Bucureşti" (ELCEN), has stated that the emergency state has been lifted, just as it was instated, through a decision of the Commission for the Coordination of the Gas Supply, created by the Ministry of Economy.

When asked what"s going to happen with the stocks of fuel oil and coal for which the thermal power plants signed contracts following direct negotiation during the emergency period, Mrs. Duica has told us that energy producers needed that fuel anyway. ELCEN"s representative explained: "We will continue to use fuel oil in our production process, as well as natural gas. The amounts contracted by ELCEN in this period don"t exceed our needs. On the contrary. We have to replenish our permanent reserves of fuel oil and we have to return the amounts of fuel oil we have received from the State Reserve. Depending on price, we will alternate the quotas of gas and fuel oil used in producing thermal and electrical energy this year".

Irina Duică claims that all the Thermal Power Plants must have alternative fuel reserves, in case there are disruptions in the natural gas supply. The emergency situation has created, for many Thermal Power Plants, an opportunity to create these reserves, especially as they have secured the financial resources needed for paying the suppliers. In summer and autumn of 2008, ELCEN did not have the money needed to create the required reserves. Several Thermal Power Plants which are managed by local councils are in the same situation as ELCEN. The Thermal Power Plants, in turn, will need to return to the State Reserve the fuel oil and coal they borrowed while the state of emergency was active.

Mrs. Duică has said that after the state of emergency was lifted, the national dispatch office will determine the exact consumption for each producer, in order to pay the suppliers. ELCEN borrowed from the State Reserve, some 39.000 tons of fuel oil.