Romania helps Moldova balance natural gas market but expects deficits itself

Moldova has received some limited amounts of natural gas from Romania, Moldovan prime minister Natalia Gavrilita announced in a press conference on the state of alert triggered by the crisis on the natural gas market, Mold-street.com reported.

The infrastructure needed to deliver natural gas from Romania to the industrialised and populated region of Chisinau, namely the interconnector and Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline, was completed and operated by a Moldovan division of Romania’s Transgaz.

Last week, the energy regulator in Moldova approved the transport fees for Vestmoldtransgaz (Transgaz’ subsidiary), removing the last obstacle, save for the price, for the exports of gas from Romania.

However, in separate news, Transgaz launched an auction to import natural gas at almost “any price” to prevent disruptions during the winter season, according to Economedia.ro.

Moldova already faced such problems last week, after Gazprom cut the supplies by one third as part of the ongoing negotiations with the pro-EU authorities in Chisinau.

There is one more obstacle for exporting natural gas from Romania to Moldova: part of the gas goes to the power plant in Transnistria, which delivers electricity to Moldova proper but has never paid for the gas received from Gazprom. In other words, no supplier would send natural gas from Romania to the Cuciurgan power plant unless the Moldovan Government guarantees for the contract.

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