Moldova to import cheaper Russian gas in second quarter

Chisinau, 17 April /MOLDPRES/- Moldova will pay 252.2 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres for the gas imported from Russia, down by about 60 dollars against the first three months of 2015.

"The gas acquisitions decreased by 18 per cent against the first quarter. The Gazprom giant informed the Moldovagaz enterprise that it would deliver gas at a price of 252.2 dollar for 1,000 cubic metres in April-June", the advisor to the economics minister, Valeriu Rusu, said. He specified that, in the first three months of 2015, the import price was 311 dollars.

The annex to the contract on gas supply conditions, signed in November 2014, sees quarterly revision of the price, depending on the medium cost of gas supplied by Gazprom to the Western European countries and stock values of oil-gas products and crude oil.

In the last nine months, the price of gas imported from Russia decreased by over 120 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. Moldova paid 374 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters in the fourth quarter of 2014.

On 13 March 2015, the Moldovagaz company asked the National Agency for Regulation of Energy to increase the gas rates by 48 per cent, up to an average of 8,386 lei per 1,000 cubic meters. The gas provider reasons its demand by "national currency devaluation against foreign currencies and financial losses inflicted to the enterprise in this context. The average exchange rate of the national currency against the U.S. dollar is expected to stand at 18.4 lei per 1 US dollar in the first quarter, which is by 54.6 per cent more against the rates calculated at 11.9 lei per 1 US dollar."

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)