The Moldovan government has approved doubling the strategic reserves of natural gas - from 22.8 million to 45.6 million cubic meters.
This is provided for by the relevant amendments that the government made at a meeting on Wednesday to its previous resolution regarding the creation and maintenance of strategic reserves of natural gas. As Minister of Energy Viсtor Parliсov explained, if the previous volumes of reserve gas reserves were sufficient for average consumption within 4 days in winter, then the new volumes of strategic reserves will cover consumption within 8 days. The head of the Ministry of Energy noted that these reserves are intended for consumption only in exceptional cases and do not apply to all reserves that the state company Energocom has. “We are talking about a gradual increase in energy security, and we are gradually reaching the reserves of 10-day average consumption in the winter,” Viсtor Parliсov said. The Natural Gas Law provides that natural gas reserves to ensure the security of natural gas supply must be equal to natural gas consumption for at least 10 days of consumption, while one day of consumption is equal to the average daily consumption for the calendar winter period of the previous year. However, the exact amount of natural gas to be stockpiled as reserve reserves is approved annually by a government decree. For the first time, strategic gas reserves were created by Moldova last year in the context of the energy crisis and are stored in Romania and Ukraine. The government has designated Energocom as the legal entity responsible for creating and maintaining strategic reserves of natural gas. The Cabinet of Ministers decree provides that these reserves will be created by October 1, 2023, while the costs will be covered mainly by financial contributions from suppliers in the retail natural gas market. // 31.05.2023 — InfoMarket
