Romania has no direct contracts with Gazprom, neither private companies nor Romgaz have, and I do not believe in the possibility of changing the contracts for natural gas in rubles in Romania, Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu told private TV broadcaster Digi 24 on Thursday evening.
"There are various intermediaries, gas traders, who have contracts especially with private companies in Romania and sell gas on the Romanian market in RON. Now, as per contract, I am convinced that the contract between companies is not in rubles and it is difficult for me to think it can be changed overnight between an intermediary company and a private company. I don't believe in the possibility of changing contracts in rubles in Romania. And then there is the problem of those intermediary companies that also have a contract with Gazprom," said minister Popescu.
He stressed that a contract could not be changed unilaterally and that European gas hubs are in euros, and Russia's announcement that it would no longer accept payments in dollars or euros for its natural gas deliveries to the EU but only in rubles was made to put pressure on consumers.
"A contract cannot be changed unilaterally. Then, the European gas hubs are not in rubles, they are in euros. The one in Baumgarten, which is mostly with Russian gas, is also in euros. The one in Amsterdam, the FTT in the Netherlands, is still in euros. So we are not talking about the ruble in gas transactions. I do not know how the Russian Federation will be able to make this change. We will see in the next period. I don't think the weather is helping them to say that there is pressure on gas consumers. We are already out of winter, the weather is warming all over Europe. I think it was just a thing, thrown on the market today [Thursday, ed. n.] when NATO is meeting, when the European Council is meeting, just to put pressure," the energy minister explained.AGERPRES