Romania, Romanian gas suppliers unable to secure contracts with Gazprom

According to Elena Alexandru from the Association of Energy Suppliers (AFEER), Romanian natural gas suppliers such as E.ON and Engie are currently importing Russian gas only under short-term (one month) supply contracts with Gazprom.

Alexandru explained that Russia has changed its gas delivery routes to southeastern Europe, abandoning the old route via Ukraine in favor of the TurkStream extension pipeline via Bulgaria and Serbia. As of recently, Hungary has also started using this route, which means that gas transit through Romania has stopped as it now far from major supply routes used by the Russian company.

She said that Russia, through Gazprom, is using and possibly encouraging volatility and high spot prices in Europe to return to the policy of long- term contracts with European partners – a policy that Europe wanted to be replaced with spot trading.