Prices of gas, electricity to drop this year, says Franck Neel (OMV Petrom)

OMV Petrom expects a drop in prices for gas and electricity starting with the summer of 2022, yet not at the level of past years, said, on Thursday, Franck Neel, member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board, during a press conference, Agerpres reports.

He was asked how he estimates the evolution of prices this year.

"It's very difficult to answer, if we look at the volatility of markets. In December, for example, we couldn't foresee the massive increase through the transport towards Europe of liquefied natural gases, which required 60 vessels. So it's very difficult to foresee, to estimate what will follow," said the Petrom official.

"It's difficult enough to bring large quantities of liquefied natural gas to Romania. The crisis in Ukraine has an impact on the situation on the local market and I think that Gazprom doesn't know either when the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will start exploitation," he continued.

In his opinion, the prices now are very high and unsustainable from the point of view of demand.

"We expect a decrease in demand an a drop in the summer in the price of gas, which will have an impact on winter prices as well," Neel said.

"The price of electrical energy tends to follow the price of gas and carbon certificates. In what regards carbon certificates, we don't expect additional increases this year, which means that the price of energy will depend on the price of gas," the OMV Petrom representative emphasized.