The natural gas supply and distribution company in Moldova, Moldovagaz, announced that it had already purchased 747.9 million cubic meters (7.95 TWh) of natural gas, mostly from the Romanian Commodities Exchange East during August-December, thus covering the entire natural gas demand for the entire winter period until the end of March 2025, according to Economedia.ro.

Gazprom is supposed to deliver 5.7 million cubic meters of gas per day to the separatist region of the country, Transnistria, or 171 million cubic meters per month (513 million cubic meters in Q1), with an important part of it being used for the electricity consumed in the entire country – including the territory controlled by the central authorities which can produce less than 10% of its electricity needs.

The expected termination of Russian gas supplies to Transnistria after January 1 would create a deficit of  513 million cubic meters of natural gas for the winter period and, consequently, a massive electricity shortage across the whole country.

The weighted average procurement price paid by Moldovagaz was EUR 47.88 per MWh, which is approximately EUR 509.15 per 1,000 cubic meters, or approximately MDL 9,842.89 per 1,000 cubic meters, with delivery to the Virtual Trading Point (PVT) of the Republic of Moldova, the company announced.

The Chisinau Parliament approved, on the night of December 12 to 13, the introduction of a state of emergency in the energy sector on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, starting with December 16, 2024, for a period of 60 days. 

The measure, requested by the government, is being instituted due to the risk that Transnistria will be left without gas supplies from Gazprom, which would cause the rest of the Republic of Moldova to face a serious electricity shortage.

Romania’s energy minister, Sebastian Burduja, announced Romania is working on a plan to supply Moldova with energy resources, with the support of other European countries, Economedia.ro reported.

Burduja mentioned an electricity deficit of some 600 MW on the side of Moldova. The capacity of the existing interconnectors between the two countries will be increased by 80 MW from 315 MW to 395 MW.

Nuclearelectrica and Hidroelectrica are already in contact with Moldova’s state-owned power trader Energocom to analyze the possibilities of providing additional volumes of electricity to the right bank of the Dniester, namely in the territories controlled by the central authorities, Burduja said. 

Additionally, minister Burduja said that Romania has natural gas stocks and is analysing priority extraction options in case supplies to the Transnistrian region (thus, the electricity production in entire Moldova) are affected after January 1.

Increasing the value of the operational balancing account between VestMoldTransGaz and Transgaz is considered an essential solution to mitigate the impact in the first days of the crisis, according to the Romanian minister, suggesting that limited amounts of natural gas might be transferred to Moldova to power the energy generation plants in the separatist region.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Sasa Maricic/Dreamstime.com)