Bucharest – Romgaz general manager, Jakob Alexa said on Thursday within the hearings at the Parliamentarian commission responsible for investigating MEC activities, that Romgaz privatisation was not appropriate at this moment.

“It is pointless to privatise Romgaz now, at least until prices reach the market level”, Romgaz general manager said.

He showed that Romgaz did not have any bank loans and not it needed lending, because it was able to start maintenance and investments based on its own funds. “I, in order to make an important decision, need more than one month”, according to Jakob Alexa, who accused the inefficient and heavy bureaucracy in the field.

Jakob Alexa was suspended from the position of Romgaz general manager, for one month, by Minister Codrut Seres and he was re-established in this office by Minister Varujan Vosganian.

Jakob Alexa affirmed that he could not know why he had been suspended and he showed that the control activity undertaken in the company which he represented outlined that there were no major issues. At mid November 2006, President Traian Basescu declared that he has asked Minister of Economy not to accelerate the privatisation process in those companies which were active in the energy field, particularly in Romgaz, a process which would be resumed after a careful analysis of the outcomes of privatisation developed in the field, including Petrom.

As of others, Alexa, who has recently returned from Moscow, specified that Gazprom did not agree with Romania proposition to reduce the price of natural gas in case of existent contracts, but only in case of those recently concluded.

“In case of Gazprom, the quantity that Romania imports from was not a significant one. The Russians isolate all the countries which could supply natural gas to Europe and they try to block all the projects where they do not participate”, according to Alexa.