ANRE report: Natural gas consumption dropped 15% against 2008

Natural gas consumption in Romania dropped 15% on a national level in 2009 in comparison with 2008: from 15.5 billion cube meters (165 million MWh) in 2008 to 13.2 billion cube meters (140 million MWh), according to a Romanian Energy National Regulation Authority (ANRE) report. The drop was consistent throughout the entire year, safe for December, when the gas consumption was 9% up against December 2008.

In December 2008, the national monthly gas consumption read 17.8 million MWh, while one year later the figures indicated 19.4 million MWh. It was also in December 2009 when imports started to increase, namely three million MWh of gas, double the quantity of December 2008. In the last month of the previous year, gas internal production amounted to 85.17% of the consumption and imports – 14.8%.

The biggest gas consumer in December last year was the electricity and heat producer sectors – 30% of the total gas consumption, followed by households – 23.9%. The chemicals industry was also a big consumer in December – 15.7%.

During summer, gas consumption on the regulated market was extremely low, scoring little above one million MWh. It started to go with October, reaching over seven million MWh by the end of the year.

As for imports, the price in December 2009 was 299 dollars/1,000 cube meters, compared with 493 dollars/1,000 cube meters in January 2009. The lowest price last year for imported gas was recorded in September: 269 dollars/1,000 cube meters.