Moldovan economics minister, Russian officials discuss Moldova’s gas, energy supply issue

Chisinau, 12 February /MOLDPRES/- Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Octavian Calmic paid a working visit to Moscow on 11 February to meet more officials in charge of energy issues. In this context, the sides discussed Moldova’s Russian natural gas and electrical energy supply. They worked out a package of actions to be taken in order to boost up Moldovan-Russian ties in this sector.

According to a press release issued by the Economics Ministry, during the meeting of Calmic and Gazprom deputy head, Valerii Golubev, who is also the chairman of the Observer Board of Moldovagaz, “the officials agreed preventively that the latter would pay a visit to Chisinau on 2-3 March 2016 in order to analyse the activity of the enterprise” .

The Moldovan official also held a meeting with Russian Economics Minister Karina Turcan, also a member of the Russian energy company’s administration board. The sides tackled the problem of the Russian Inter RAO EES corporation’s electrical energy supply to Moldova and ways to boost up the efficiency of collaboration ties between Moldovan and Russian companies in the field.

Moldovagaz and Gazprom signed an additional agreement to the gas supply contract, providing for its prolongation by one more year. When setting up new natural gas tariffs, the National Agency of Regulationof Energy (ANRE) took into account the approximate price for the acquisition of natural gas in 2016, accounting for 199.72 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, 60.57 dollars lower than the annual average in 2015.  

The electrical energy provider has previously announced that it asked some Ukrainian, Russian and Romanian energy companies for offers. Its current contract with the companies delivering energy from Kuchurgan power station and Energocom, expires on 31 March 2016.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor L. Alcaza)