Some companies deliver natural gas to consumers at half price. Authorities react
There are two parallel gas markets in Moldova: one free and one regulated by the state. The revelation was made today by Renato Usatii at a press conference. He claims that some companies with a supply licence sell gas even to domestic consumers for 11-15 lei per cubic metre, while Moldovagaz customers pay more than 29 lei per cubic metre, a tariff set last September. Prime Minister Dorin Recean wrote on Facebook that the government will intervene through the Commission for Exceptional Situations.
It is happening because the state-owned operator Energocom has made reservations at high prices, and since January has not made any purchases. Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that the Government will ask for a reduction in tariffs, given that the price of natural gas on the European market has fallen below the level of the summer of 2021, i.e. the pre-crisis level, when futures contracts for delivery in the next month were quoted at around 270 euros per thousand cubic meters.
Moldovagaz has a public service obligation, i.e. it must supply residential consumers, and prices are regulated by tariffs set by the energy agency.
Other suppliers operate practically on the free market. More than 20 companies have licences. For example, Transautogaz, to which Renato Usatii refers, has a licence to supply gas to non-household consumers. The company was set up by the daughter company of the Moldovan-Russian company Moldovagaz - Moldovatransgaz - which is also a gas transporter.
According to last year's report, Transautogaz stopped its supply activity in 2021 due to high prices and resumed it in October 2022, when the European market stabilised. So Transautogaz buys gas on the stock exchange and supplies it to industrial companies in Moldova.
Renato Usatii claims that on the unregulated market there are companies supplying cheap gas to residential consumers.
"More than 70 companies in the country, in the Republic of Moldova, the biggest ones - buy gas between 11 and 14 lei. Here is the whole contract, at the price of 14 lei 50 money for a cubic meter," says Renato Usatii, chairman of the Our Party.
Prime Minister Dorin Recean wrote on Facebook that the government will intervene through the Commission for Exceptional Situations.
Tariffs set by the National Energy Regulatory Agency are dictated by financial deviations. The situation created, however, is not fair to residential consumers.
Prime Minister Recean spoke four days ago in Parliament that the government would this week demand a reduction in gas tariffs.
"The government is working to gather financial resources and, starting next week, will buy cheaper gas and come up with a proposal to reduce tariffs. As I said, we will soon have a reduction in tariffs, I won't speculate now by how much. But I want to draw your attention now to the following thing, that the mechanism of exceptional situations has saved the citizens of the Republic of Moldova four billion lei."
The national energy operator has had its EBRD loan extended by a further €100 million, and the Norwegian government has offered another €100 million in grants. With this money, it will buy cheaper gas on the European Union Energy Platform, where demand is aggregated to prevent speculation and price explosions.
Energocom has already participated in the first auction. In the past two months, state-owned Energocom has sold gas to supplier Moldovagaz for €670 per thousand cubic metres, cheaper than the formula of Gazprom, which continues to deliver to the left bank of the Dniester. Part of these volumes are destined for electricity generation, Energocom has extended the supply of electricity from the Cuciurgan Thermal Power Plant for another month, the price is $66 per megawatt-hour.
