The price of gas supplied by Russia to Moldova in the first quarter of 2013 may be by US$5 per thousand cubic meters lower. The contract for the supply of gas hasn’t been extended yet, but an agreement was reached to reduce the current price, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar has said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. According to Valeriu Lazar, the selling price of gas in the first quarter is important because it is usually taken as basis when calculating the price for the next quarters of the year. A reduction of about 20% may be obtained in the third quarter, depending on the development of the talks with the Russian side. Currently, Moldova pays US$396 per thousand cubic meters to the Russian gas giant Gazprom. The official said it is early to say if the expected price reductions will influence the tariff paid by the end-users. In the context of the gas supplies, Prime Minister Vlad Filat told the press that the Energy Community Ministerial Council on December 5 unanimously adopted the decision to grant Moldova’s request to postpone the implementation of the Third Energy Package until January 1,2020. The decision was supported by the European Commission. ”On December 5, we conferred on this theme with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. On December 14, Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar and his Russian colleagues will hold discussions on the Third Energy Package and the intergovernmental cooperation agreement in the energy sector in Moscow,” stated Vlad Filat. The implementation by Moldova of the Third Energy Package of the European Union is one of the subjects that aroused disputes within the talks on the new agreement for the supply of Russian gas to Moldova.