Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz Medias expects its financial results, gas sales and production to be flat on year in 2009, on lower gas consumption with some industrial consumers, General Manager Francisc Toth said Tuesday, news agency Mediafax reported.
"The gas sales will equally decrease on lower consumption with industrial clients," Toth said.
He said Romania's largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal Galati, a unit of U.K.-based ArcelorMittal Group (MT), recently reduced its gas consumption, while several chemical plants within the InterAgro group haven't used gas for two months.
"The gas imports reach now four million cubic meters per day, compared with 14 or 15 million cubic meters during similar periods some years ago," Toth said.
Also, natural gas prices will likely decrease in 2009 on lower international oil prices, he added.
Romgaz, which is majority owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is Romania's largest gas producer, with a 41% market share. In 2007, it extracted over 5 billion cubic meters of gas.
Romgaz reported a net profit of 442 million Romanian new lei ($148 million) in the first nine months of 2008, up 77.6% from RON248.8 million a year earlier. Turnover rose 4.3% to RON2.38 billion in the first nine months, from RON2.28 billion a year earlier, mainly due to higher gas supplies, prices and storages.