Gazprom Wants Distrigaz Sud

The most important natural gas supplier in Europe is to submit its firm offer for Distrigaz Sud, but is going to invest in some partnership projects with Romania, having as final goal the establishment in the South-Eastern Europe.

"We are going to finalize our offer for Distrigaz Sud in Moscow and, of course, we hope to win", stated yesterday Alexey Miller, the president of the Russian group Gazprom, the most important natural gas supplier in Europe. Miller also said that he is not to get into any consortium with anyone for the Distrigaz Sud buying, adding that if this is to go through, he is going to sign a long term partnership agreement with Romania. Taking into account that the Russian supplier cannot takeover both Distrigaz Sud and Distrigaz Nord, Gazprom will only make offers for the Distrigaz Sud society.

THE ROMANIAN STAKE. The discussions with the Romanian authorities have been about the privatization project, the natural gas transit, the development of the warehousing ability.

Miller emphasized the importance on the bond between the different partnership projects with Romania and the increase of the amount of natural gas spot-contracts, once the market is free. The most invoked has been the project of "some common investments" in a warehouse in the North-Eastern part of the country and in a transit pipe in the area close to the Siret river.

SATISFACTIONS. Dan Ioan Popescu insisted on manifesting his satisfaction about the fact that through the partnerships with Gazprom, "Romania gets an important role in the development of the South-Eastern European market, the warehouse in Margineni which a capacity of 2 billion cubic meters, could function not only for supplying Romania and Moldova but also for deliveries in the countries from the South of Romania".

When asked about the reason of giving up on the Petrom purchase, Miller answered: "The right question is not why? But what for?", pointing at the privatization conditions which didn’t match with the Russian giant’s plans.