In accordance with the protocol signed with Gazprom, the audit to determine the debts of Moldovagaz is to be completed by October 1 but this is impossible. In such conditions, the continuation of the natural gas supplies after October 1 remains at Gazprom’s discretion, said the president of the Administration Board of Moldovagaz Vadim Ceban. According to him, the high purchase price makes the company to ask for a rise in the gat rate for end users so as to be able to make the payments to Gazprom and to cover the financial deviations, IPN reports.
Vadim Ceban said it is not clear whether the supplies of natural gas will be reduced or fully halted by Gazprom after October 1. From legal viewpoint, the Russian gas company has the right to stop the supplies as Chisinau does not manage to fulfill the obligations stipulated in the protocol signed last October.
“Continuing or halting the supplies of natural gas after October 1 is at Gazprom’s discretion. Besides the payments we make each month by the date of 20 and the payment of the advance – we manage to cope with the Government’s support – there is also the protocol signed last year, with aspects referring to the audit. Gazprom demands that this audit should be completed by October 1 but this is impossible,” Vadim Ceban stated in the talk show “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei radio station.
The chief of Moldovagaz said that as from October, if the current contract is maintained, the purchase price will be lower because the price calculation formula will be modified. But even if the gas rates are raised by the National Agency for Energy Regulation, the decision will be late as the company already accumulated negative deviations of millions of lei.
“We are also not happy with such prices. We also face problems as consumption declines. The volumes we sell decrease and this is already visible. The volumes already diminished by 15-20%. We receive letters from large consumers operating in the industrial sector, which inform that they decided to switch over from gas to crude oil. As to the prices, simple calculations show that based on the purchase price for September, a cubic meter of gas costs US$1.8. If we multiply by the exchange rate, we have over 36 lei. But the formula will be different from October and the price will be different. Therefore, we suggest an appropriate rate. But we are already late. Such a rate should have been applied since summer as, instead of reducing the financial deviations in summer, we accumulated larger amounts,” stated Vadim Ceban.
Currently, residential customers pay a rate of 22.99 lei per cubic meter of gas with VAT included. The purchase price of the gas supplied by Gazprom in September is US$1,883 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, up over US$400 on August.
