Romanian Nabucco segment to be extended 25-year exemption from gas transmission pricing requirements

The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) has approved a request by the Nabucco International Company (NIC) that the Romanian segment of the Nabucco gas pipeline be exempted from pricing requirements applicable to gas transmission and also from the provisions concerning access of third parties to transmission networks, reads a release issued by ANRE.

The exemption should be 25 years counted from the date when the first segment of Nabucco becomes operational.

For the Romanian segment, the rules concerning access of third parties to the Nabucco gas pipeline as well as taxation will be drawn up by NIC and submitted to the ANRE for approval.

NIC will have to extend equal and non-discriminatory access to all users to the gas pipeline.

The exemptions have been approved conditional upon observance of some conditions, such as the revision of pricing methods 20 years after the first Nabucco segment becomes operational, the company conducting a public offer to contract out the pipeline’s capabilities before commencement of construction works on the pipeline, preventing instances in which any of the shareholder in NIC would get to win a dominant position on the internal market, and designing a pricing system for the pipeline’s users that will range within 10% of the European averages charged under similar projects.

The exemptions will be limited to at most 50% of the total annual capacity technically available.

The exemption will be cancelled if the Romanian segment fails to be commissioned within five years after the European Commission approves a decision to grant the exemptions to all the four EU member states that the Nabucco gas pipeline will cross, but no later than December 31, 2014.

Transmitted through the Nabucco pipeline will be natural gas from Asia to Austria, via Turkey, Romania and Hungary.

In keeping with the provisions of the Romanian legislation and the European directive concerning the common European market in natural gas, the exemption decision will be submitted to the European Commission for consideration.

Officials of five companies - OMV of Austria, Botas of Turkey, Mol of Hungary, Transgaz of Romania and Bulgargaz of Bulgaria - making up the NIC and officials of Germany’s RWE utility early this February signed in Vienna an agreement on making RWE the sixth business partner in the project.