Moldova's National Commission for Emergency Situations, CSE, has requested state-owned energy trader Energocom to buy 10 million cubic meters of natural gas from public supplier Moldovagaz for storage in Romania, the government said.
Natural gas stocks will be procured and delivered in two tranches under a European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) framework contract concluded between Energocom and Moldovagaz, the government said in a press release on Monday evening.
For the first tranche, the purchase price will be $1,458.92 (1,465 euro) per 1,000 cu m, based on the price at which Moldovagaz buys gas from Russia's Gazprom, plus the cost of delivery through Moldovatransgaz' transportation system. The second tranche will be bought in September at an estimated price of $1,881 per 1,000 cu m.
CSE members also decided to allocate 322 million lei ($16.54 million/ 16.61 million euro) from the state budget to increase Energocom's capital. Moldova has no gas deposits of its own and covers all of its gas needs by imports from Russia.
In June, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced it is providing a 300 million euro loan to Moldova to boost its energy security by acquiring strategic gas reserves to supplement those currently provided by Russia through Ukraine. The financing will cover up to one-fifth of Moldova’s planned gas imports for 2022, which are vulnerable to potential interruption as a result of the war on Ukraine, the EBRD said at the time.
In March, Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu said that his country is ready to build on its territory a gas storage capacity or host gas for Moldova in order to help it reduce its dependence of Russian gas.
(SeeNews, August 30, 2022)
