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Natural gas imports, tripled these days
Natural gas imports have tripled these days, compared to a normal winter period, for the gas supply to population and industry to remain balanced, with the Gas Dispatch Centre being currently on alert, sources with the Dispatch Centre told Agerpres on Wednesday.
However, they warned that problems can occur any given moment, as the domestic gas production and extraction from deposits are at their maximum, so the only source to balance the system is the import from Russia.
'With all their goodwill, the Russians cannot supply overnight a large volume of gas additionally to what was ordered. Under these circumstances, problems can surely arise,' the Dispatch Centre's representatives also said.
According to them yesterday [January 28], the national consumption stood at 62.476 million cubic meters, by 24% higher compared to a normal winter day, when around 50 million cubic meters are consumed.
Imports amounted to 11.4 million cubic meters, compared to 4.5 million cubic meters in a normal day.
Domestic production stood at 27.6 million cubic meters on Tuesday, and 24 million cubic meters were extracted from deposits.
According to the sources mentioned, currently five chemical plants are in operation, four part of Interagro Group and Azomures. These are the largest consumers of natural gas in the country.
Moreover, sources from the relevant field told AGERPRES on Wednesday that Interagro is no longer interruptible consumer, which means that if there are problems with the gas supply of the population, the four Interagro plants group cannot be stopped in order to ensure the gas supply to population with priority.
In the winter of 2012, when temperatures were also very low, the supply to population was ensured by increasing imports and by interrupting the supplies to large industrial gas consumers.