If the contract with the Russian company Gazprom is maintained and the gas supplies are not halted, as from October 1 the Republic of Moldova will have another formula for the calculation of the price of gas. This is much more advantageous and the purchase price of gas should decline. If this happens, the gas rates could be reviewed, said Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development.
“Under the contract, the last two months for which we have secured volumes of gas, and we have secured volumes for September and October, two months before the expiry the sides, Moldovagaz or Gazprom, can discuss the volumes for the next 12 months. If none of the sides wants to change these volumes, the same volumes remain for another year. So, if a request to review the volumes is not made by September 1 – as far as I know Moldovagaz didn’t make such a request - these volumes are transferred for the next 12 months, as it happened last year. That’s why the September 1 time limit of is mentioned,” Andrei Spînu stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei radio station.
Asked what size the gas rate can be, the official said it is hard to estimate now. “We do not speak about the component that is related to the gas price on the market. We will see. Last winter, the purchase price was US$450 to US$630. So, the price is expected to be much lower than at present,” said Andrei Spînu.
As to the recent adjustment of gas prices, he said that the National Agency for Energy Regulation precisely applied the law. The methodology for calculating the rate is based on the average annual purchase price. But the situation is unprecedented and there was no other situation when Moldova had such exaggeratedly high prices in summer earlier.
“Gazprom decided to cut the volumes of gas supplied to some of the European countries. This created a particular shortage of gas that made the prices go up. This has nothing to do with the formula specified in the contract. I repeatedly said that the contract formula referring to summer is much better than the formula negotiated by the Socialists and the Chicu Government last year. So, we have a better formula. If last year’s formula had been kept, the purchase price of gas for this month would have been US$1,800,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
