New selling price of Russian gas for Moldova confirmed

The National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) received the confirmation of the new selling price of gas set by Russia’s gas company Gazprom for the third quarter of this year from SA Moldovagaz. The price will be US$182.3 per thousand cubic meters of gas at standard calorific value, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the ANRE. The Agency is analyzing the results achieved by the companies operating in the field in the first half of this year and is doing calculations on the basis of the new purchase price to see if the gas tariff for en-users can be modified. According to the methodology for calculating the tariffs, the ANRE can adjust the charges for end-users only if there are objective factors involving financial deviations of over 3% of the total costs included in the tariffs, the Agency’s director general Vadim Ceban said. The last time, the ANRE adjusted the natural gas tariffs for end-users on July 30, 2008 after the purchase price of Russian gas was raised from US$191 to US$283 per thousand cubic meters of gas. From August 1, 2008, the average gas tariff will be 3,523 lei per thousand cubic meters of gas.