September 24 (SeeNews) - The European Commission (EC) said it is analysing commitments submitted by Romania's sole natural gas transmission company Transgaz [BSE:TGN] to increase exports in order to address concerns in an EU antitrust case.
Following a formal investigation opened in June 2017, the Commission said it had has concerns that Transgaz may have breached EU competition rules by restricting exports of natural gas from Romania.
In order to address EC's concerns, Transgaz has proposed several commitments that would make it possible for the first time to reach commercially significant export capacities in Romania, the EC said on Friday in a press release.
Thus, Transgaz said it is ready to increase export capacities from 0.1 billion cubic meters to 4 billion cubic meters per year at the interconnection points with Hungary and Bulgaria, with the guarantee that they are firm minimum capacities, that can not be interrupted. Also, it said it will ensure that in the tariff proposal it will submit to the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) it will not discriminate between export tariffs and domestic tariffs.
Finally, the company pledged that it will refrain from using any other means of obstructing exports.
These commitments would remain in force until the end of 2025 and a trustee would be in charge of monitoring Transgaz' compliance with them.
The Commission said it is inviting all stakeholders to submit their views on the commitments within four weeks of their publication in the EU's Official Journal.
After this, taking into account all comments received, the EC will take a final view on whether the commitments address its competition concerns.
Earlier this month, Transgaz finalised the takeover of Moldovan gas transmission company Vestmoldtransgaz for 8.8 million euro ($10.3 million).
Shares of Transgaz traded 2% higher at 357 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by 0929 CET on Monday.
($=0.8488 euro)