Whoever is appointed on a competitive basis as a gas supplier to Moldova will in any case have to cooperate with Moldovagaz. This was stated by the head of the company Vadim Cheban, answering the question of who will prepare the republic for winter in case the enterprise loses its license.
“We are not hanging in the air. The issue will be resolved,” he assured.
Cheban explained that Moldovagaz JSC has an infrastructure, an IT system, an algorithm for interacting with consumers, of which there are more than 830 thousand, customer service centers in each region.
“They will continue their work, and we will provide these services to a new supplier appointed on the basis of a tender, as decided by the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE),” Cheban said.
Recall, the Moldovagaz gas transportation company may be deprived of its license if the company does not complete the separation procedure with Moldovatransgaz by July 31. The obligation to separate operators of natural gas transportation systems is a requirement of the Third EU Energy Package.
“The period from May to September, even October, will be crucial for the purchase of natural gas at favorable prices. The question is different: Who will buy natural gas for the cold season? In our case, in the case of Moldovagaz, given that there is an ANRE decision that calls into question the license, we cannot buy gas for the winter,” Cheban explained.
The National Energy Regulatory Agency has already announced the start of the process of selecting natural gas suppliers to Moldova. Interested companies can submit their applications until May 2. At the same time, Cheban stated that it is impossible to rebuild the entire infrastructure from scratch in such a short time. You will have to use existing services.
“We are ready to offer all our support within the framework of our mandate. We are responsible, mature people who have gone through the crisis and learned from it. I am convinced that by September a solution will be found and proposed,” concluded Vadim Cheban.
As EADaily reported, ANRE confirmed that Moldovagaz, whose main shareholder is a Russian concern, was supposed to complete the separation process with its subsidiary Moldovatransgaz by September 30, 2026. However, after Ukraine stopped the transit to Gazprom on January 1, thereby blocking the supply of gas to the region, Chisinau decided to reconsider the risks of energy security. At the same time, since 2023, Moldova’s gas transportation network has been leased from Vestmoldtransgaz, which belongs to the Romanian state-owned gas operator Transgaz.