"InterAgro" no longer wants to be an interruptible gas consumer

The management of "InterAgro" announced on Friday that on December 2nd, it has sent a notice to "Transgaz" in which it requests the approval to forego the status of interruptible gas consumer, starting with January 1st 2011. This status, which is granted to big gas users upon request, involves the interruption of gas deliveries by the National Dispatch in order to prioritize the population and the public institutions in the winter time.

According to a press release sent to our editors, the decision of "InterAgro" is intended to eliminate the losses resulting from the interruptions in the supply of natural gas in the company"s chemical plants. "InterAgro" processes natural gas in several companies it controls: "Amurco" Bacău, "Donau Chem" Turnu Măgurele, "Viromet" Victoria, "GA&PRO CO" Piatra Neamţ and "Nitroporos" Făgăraş.

The Romanian chemical industry has an annual gas input of about 2.5 billion cubic meters. Over the last 18 months, fertilizer manufacturers have benefited from the option of exclusively buying natural gas produced domestically, which was 50% cheaper than the one imported. This facility was withdrawn in November because the weight of imports in the consumer basket for the population, small companies and other eligible consumers increased.

On the other hand, fertilizer makers sold most of their output (50-70%) on the foreign market.

"InterAgro" has chosen to forgo its uninterruptible consumer status, as it now considers that it can no longer draw any benefits from it, and this will allow it to operate without any disruptions in the gas supply in the winter time, when it needs to manufacture fertilizer for the spring harvest.