The National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) on March 7 held a public debate on the price and tariffs of the natural gas supplied to consumers in 2018. The final decision on the new tariffs will be announced in a later meeting of the Agency, IPN reports.
NAER division head Alexandru Mija said the holders of licenses operating in the field asked for a tariff for the transportation of gas by “Moldovatransgaz” of 36.78 lei per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, by 10% higher than the current tariff, and for a gas distribution tariff of 1,293.96 lei, up 25%. Taking into account these calculations and the fact that the purchase price of natural gas decreased to US$ 178 per 1,000 cubic meters and the exchange rate of the leu against the US dollar, SA „Moldovagaz”, which supplies natural gas to end-users, will ask for a tariff of 4,914.97 lei per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, down 630 lei (11.4%) from the current tariff of 5,545lei.
The representatives of SA “Moldovagaz” said the reduction of 20.3%, to 4,420 lei per 1,000 cubic meters, which was earlier proposed by the NAER, does not cover the investments made in 2016-2017. In particular, the length of gas networks grew by 9% and the number of end-users rose by 15%.
Attending the debate, expert Tudor Soitu said the tariff for transporting 1,000 cubic meters of gas in 1997 was of 58 lei, in 2007 - 176 lei, while in 2017 - 584 lei. The personnel-related costs when transporting 1,000 cubic meters of gas in 1997 were 1.4 lei, in 2007 - 17 lei, while in 2017 - 86 lei. The natural gas distribution tariffs also increased significantly.
The participants in the debate recommended that the system operators should increase their efficiency and should further reduce the network work losses.
There were also mentioned the deviations recorded by SA “Moldovagaz”. Expert Sergiu Tofilat said last year the deviations were positive given the decline in the price of gas and the appreciation of the leu. It is thus not clear why “Moldovagaz” didn’t clear a part of the debts accumulated to Gazprom the previous years with a part of revenues.
The last time the gas tariff was modified on January 26, 2016, when the average tariff for end-users was approved at 5,545 lei per 1,000 cubic meters. The tariff for household users is now 5,892 lei (without VAT) per 1,000 cubic meters for the first 30 cubic meters consumed and 6,138 lei for the rest of the consumed gas.
