The Republic of Moldova has problems with natural gas supply. Company
Moldovagaz, the company that provides natural gas to the Republic of Moldova, announces that the country consumes more gas than imports from Gazprom, which is why it asked subscribers to reduce consumption.
“Starting with October of this year, 54 million covered meters of natural gas were contracted, or 67% of the 80 million covered meters needed for consumers on the right bank of the Dniester. As a result, as of October 1, the actual daily consumption of natural gas in the country began to exceed the volume provided by SAP “Gazprom”. The lack of gas imports is covered by the gas stock in the gas pipeline in the Republic of Moldova, which is resulting in lower prices in the gas transmission system LLC “Moldovatransgaz”, the company says in a post on Facebook.
The cause of this problem is that Moldovagaz’s agreement with Gazprom was extended on the last day of September, a few hours before its expiration. As a result of this delay in signing the new contract (which is valid for only one month anyway), Gazprom would not have had the legal basis to organize the reservation of capacity to transport natural gas through the Ukrainian transmission system for Moldovan consumers in October 2021.
In order to deal with the gas deficit, Moldovagaz asked consumers to reduce gas consumption, according to the quoted post.
Solutions proposed by the company:
a) consumers who have the possibility to switch to alternative fuels;
b) sugar factories, which can store sugar beet for a certain number of days, as well as replacing the excessive volume of consumption contracted with alternative fuel (fuel oil).
Also, companies in the country’s thermal energy complex have been proposed in advance to temporarily switch to alternative fuel sources.
Moldovagaz announces that it is negotiating with Gazprom to increase the volume of gas supply.
We remind you that Romania and Moldova have inaugurated a gas pipeline to reduce Moldova’s dependence on Russian gas, but no gas transfer from Romania is made on the pipeline. (Photo: Gas pipeline connecting Moldova to Romania / source: Free Europe)