The Republic of Moldova is entering a period when there will be several gas suppliers and different prices for consumers. This is what the Minister of Energy, Victor Parlicov, says, according to which the Republic of Moldova no longer depends on the gas offered by Gazprom, and the free market offers citizens lower gas prices. The Minister of Energy says that for the month of May, Energocom managed to procure gas from the international market at a lower price than the price offered by the Russian concern, notes IPN.
Minister Victor Parlicov says that the period when there was only one gas supplier in the Republic of Moldova is over, and with the appearance of several suppliers on the market, prices will become competitive, and consumers will benefit from the best rate.
“We are moving into a new era. We come from the era when there was only one supplier, one price. We are moving to the stage where there will be many suppliers and many different prices, fewer consumers who have regulated prices and more consumers who have negotiated prices in the open market. Everyone can negotiate. Now we have a de facto liberalization of the market. From January 1, there are no more bans on issuing licenses, new licenses are being issued, big suppliers are coming, international suppliers are coming. What we want to demonstrate is the benefit of the free market compared to a fixed price”, said Victor Parlicov in the program “In Context” on the public television channel Moldova 1.
According to the minister, the Republic of Moldova has freed itself from dependence on Russian gas, and the possibility of procuring gas from the international market offers consumers lower prices than those offered by Gazprom. According to the minister, for several months in a row Energocom buys gas from the international market at a price lower than the price offered by Russia.
“There is a myth that the cheapest gas in the Republic of Moldova comes from Gazprom. The tender for May was won by Energocom with a price below Gazprom’s price. Not by much, but it’s a lower price. In April, Energocom managed to procure gas from the international market 20% below Gazprom’s price. We are now creating the conditions for as many suppliers as possible to appear and go to consumers. Except that they will not look for household consumers, because they are looking, first of all, for large, industrial consumers, with whom they have a single contract to manage and flows of tens of millions of lei. Whereas in the case of home consumers, you have to have thousands of consumers to reach a certain flow of money. But we want to prove that a liberalized market, a market where more players will participate, will give a better price than Gazprom’s price”, said the Minister of Energy.
On April 26, Moldovagaz submitted to ANRE the request to revise the gas tariffs by 9.3% less than the current tariff. Currently, domestic consumers pay a gas tariff of 13.39 lei per cubic meter.
