Repealing increase in gas rates to worsen financial situation, warns Moldovan gas supplier

Chisinau, 7 August /MOLDPRES/ - Repealing the increase in rates "will sharply worsen the financial situation of gas branch enterprises and will further raise debt to Russian Gas Concern Gazprom", according to a statement by gas supplier Moldovagaz. On the other hand, according to more specialists, increasing natural gas tariffs by 15.4 per cent is not justified and the National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) announced that it would consider forecasts on the evolution of acquisition prices for natural gas, to determine if they were sufficient arguments for revising the tariffs.

In a press release, the natural gas supplier said that "the regulated natural gas rates have not been revised since September 2011. On this period Moldovagaz and its affiliated companies have accumulated losses of about 3.9 billion lei and the debt to Gazprom (without the breakaway Transnistrian region), for the period 2011 - first half of 2015, amounts to 454.9 million dollars."

If ANRE takes a decision of repealing or suspending the validity of newly regulated natural gas tariffs, “the risk of interruption of a stable gas supply on the cold period of 2015 will increase”. If Moldovagaz will lose the opportunity to extinguish its debt for the supplied natural gas, according to the contract "Gazprom will be able to reduce, and eventually completely stop supplying natural gas, with a warning to this effect given in February 2015," says the company.

Moldovagaz adds that "cancellation or suspension of regulated tariffs may cause Gazprom to revise the contractual relations for natural gas supply to Moldova in 2016, including by invoking the accumulated debt."

"ANRE will consider, after receiving a recommendation of the Supreme Security Council from 5 August on the review of new tariffs for natural gas supplied to end consumers and the Economics Ministry’s forecast on the evolution of purchase prices of natural gas, to determine whether there are enough arguments to revise the concerned rates," says a statement by ANRE. In this step, "ANRE will be guided strictly by the law and the present tariff methodology."

During the government meeting on 5 August, Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet recommended ANRE to discuss reviewing gas tariffs considered too high. „As recommendation, I sent to ANRE, even if we have no institutional relations, a request to take note of this issue and hold a new meeting, in order to revise the gas rates. These tariffs will represent a burden not only for citizens, but also for the industrial sector, a good deal of which works on these resources,” said Strelet.

Strelet also demanded that the Economics Ministry works out its own vision on the formation of gas rates. „We have to take into account the dynamic of decreasing prices for purchasing gas, which stood at 254 dollars for 1,000 cubic metres of gas in the second quarter, now the price is 214 dollars, and it is estimated to drop to 204 dollars for 1,000 cubic meters in the fourth quarter. In the opinion of more specialists, the gas rates are not justified. It is necessary to have our own vision, which would be the correct tariff for gas for end consumers, in order to understand where there are deviations from legal norms and regulations in force,” said the prime minister.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor L. Alcaza)