Moldovan government approves amendments to natural gas law

The government approved amendments to the Natural Gas Law today. These amendments aim to strengthen the energy security of Moldova, including the Transnistrian region, and speed up the liberalization process of the natural gas market.

The new regulations provide for the introduction of unified harmonized tariffs for the natural gas distribution service. So far, the distribution tariffs have varied depending on the company, with the lowest being in Chisinau and the highest in Taraclia. The Ministry of Energy specified that harmonized distribution tariffs across the country would allow suppliers to expand their activity all over Moldova and would create more competitive conditions for purchasing natural gas for end consumers.

Also, large industrial enterprises which consume a large volume of natural gas will switch to the free competitive market, according to a schedule approved by the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE), exclusively on the free natural gas market, benefiting from competitive gas supply prices.

The project also stipulates that the mechanism for establishing mandatory natural gas stocks will be adjusted to 15 per cent of the average annual consumption,  being exercised by all gas suppliers, independently or by delegating this responsibility proportionally to their market share.

At the same time, the participants in the meeting proposed to introduce a new mechanism, through which ANRE could nominate an entity to supply natural gas to the Transnistrian region, including by establishing stocks of 15 per cent, to cover the consumption of the categories of protected consumers of vital importance, household consumers and organizations providing essential social services.