Economy Minister excludes gas price liberalization in 2010

The next steps regarding the liberalization will only be decided upon once the Romanian Energy regulator ANRE has finished its study on the impact of the liberalization on the Romanian economy and all energy companies in the country have agreed to the move. Videanu wants to have a time frame worked out by the end of 2010 (with the intention not to publish it). The opening of the connection pipeline between Romania and Hungary (Arad-Szeged pipeline) gives Romania access to alternative gas sources, which is a prerequisite for the price liberalization in Romania, Videanu said. The aim is to prevent a post-liberalization price hike for private consumers who are highly dependent on gas for cooking and heating and cannot afford to pay market prices.

We see the news neutral because we do not believe that any market participant speculated on full gas price liberalization this year. Due to the lack of transparency in this respect, we have not included any gains from the gas price liberalization in our planning. May we remind that OMV's CEO David Davies indicated the potential positive impact on a full price alignment with EUR 500 mn on Petrom's FY EBIT. Thus, the liberalization is a positive trigger, and we believe that the longer a gradual alignment is adjourned, the more likely a short-term or full instant alignment (at least for industrial customers) becomes.

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