Natural gas providers in Romania will recoup costs of 400 million Euros in the next six years, which are not acknowledged in the regulated tariff practiced over the last three years.

Nicolae Havrileţ, the president of the ANRE (the regulator of the energy market), said: "Over the last three years, the operators incurred additional expenses of approximately 400 million Euros with the acquisition of imported natural gas. The ANRE did not acknowledge those costs in the regulated tariff, which is why the operators have filed a lawsuit against it.

They have requested to recoup these costs through an increase of the regulated price by 15%. We have decided that this percentage was not bearable by consumers and we have decided to implement, starting in September, a 5% increase for the price of the gas supplied to the population, the public institutions and the electric plants, as well as a 10% increase for the natural gas supplied to the companies which still benefit from this regulated price".

He explained that the hike of the price of gas will allow operators to recoup their costs in six years, and companies, in two years.

This year, the ANRE will liberalize the price of the natural gas market, which overlaps these price hikes. Two years from now, all the companies will have a liberalized price for natural gas, and the price paid by the population will see the price it pays liberalized six years from now.

A new price increase for the population will take place one year from now (8%), when the liberalization process will begin, the president of the ANRE said.

The companies will bear additional expenses this year (5%), and for them the liberalization process is set to begin in December.

The head of the IMF mission, Erik de Vrijer, announced on Tuesday that the price of natural gas supplied to the population will increase 5% in Se