Next year will be difficult for everyone and there will be more small energy suppliers going out of business or going bankrupt, Jose Garza, CEO of Premier Energy, said on Friday, as quoted by Agerpres.
“2022 will be a difficult year for everyone, it will be a continuation of 2021, there will be small suppliers who decide to quit or go bankrupt, which is bad for the sector, for competition,” Garza said.
He pointed out that there is a lot of uncertainty in the market and the situation depends a lot on external factors.
For his part, Marius Cazan, head of the company’s gas business, pointed out that the price trend is difficult to estimate for next year.
“It is difficult to estimate how the price will evolve. Many see that it will decrease, which I think should happen naturally, because such a price level is not sustainable, many industries are shutting down production. The market should come to an equilibrium naturally, we expect that, but there is a lot of uncertainty,” Cazan continued.
Premier Energy currently has 19 gas distribution concessions, manages a network of 2,500 kilometers of pipelines and has around 100,000 customers.
“We have been building around 200 kilometers of new pipelines per year and we will continue this pace, which will bring us around 6,000 new customers annually,” Garza added.
He revealed that Premier Energy is interested in investing in renewable and gas-fired power generation in the future, as well as in other areas such as pharma.
“Most of our network is ready to transport hydrogen, so we are also looking at this sector. We will continue to invest so that we can distribute hydrogen with our entire network. Half a billion euro will come to Romania for this area, but for now things are just at the beginning, there is no legislation yet and we don’t see this area developing for four to five years,” Premier Energy’s CEO pointed out.
Premier Energy is owned by EMA Capital, an investment fund founded by Czech businessman Jiri Smejc, which entered the Romanian market in 2013.