The head of “Moldovagaz” warned of a new increase in gas tariffs in the country

CHISINAU, 1 Sep – PRIME. Moldovagaz is preparing a request to the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) of Moldova for a new gas tariff increase, Vadim Cheban, head of the company, said on Thursday.

“JSC “Moldovagaz” is in the process of consultations with ANRE on amendments and additions to the Regulation on natural gas supplies, as well as pricing principles, based on the changes proposed by the regulator in the methodology for calculating the tariff for natural gas. The issue of submitting a new application for updating tariffs will be considered at one of the next meetings of the board of the company,” he pointed out to his Telegram channel.

Earlier, Cheban said that in September the cost of Russian gas for Moldova would rise to $1,882.78 per thousand cubic meters.

he also clarified that the calculation formula for the cost of gas will change from October 1. According to him, 70% of the price will be formed depending on the cost of oil products (gas oil and fuel oil) and 30% – based on stock quotes.

In early August, the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) increased the gas tariff for consumers from 18.62 lei to 23 lei per cubic meter, including VAT (the dollar exchange rate is 19.3 lei per dollar). ANRE proceeded from the average purchase price in 2022 of $899 per thousand cubic meters. At the same time, the price of gas from Gazprom in August was $1,458.5.

Gazprom and Moldovagaz on October 29, after lengthy negotiations, extended the gas supply contract for a period of five years, starting from November 1. Gazprom, in strict accordance with the conditions prescribed in the contract, which Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Spinu insisted on, established a formula for determining the purchase price, which began to take into account the current situation on the spot market in European countries. Chisinau believed that this would allow the republic to save more, but the situation on the market has changed a lot, as a result, the price of gas for end consumers in the republic has almost quadrupled since last year.

In November, Moldova had problems with the transfer of payments on time, a delay was needed. In January, JSC “Moldovagaz” again faced difficulties in repaying the payment to “Gazprom”, the parliament introduced a state of emergency for 60 days. Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for Gazprom, expressed fears that the non-payment crisis could repeat itself in the future.