In Moldova, public service obligations for gas supply may be transferred from Moldovagaz to the state-owned Energocom - the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER)
This will happen if Moldovagaz's license to supply natural gas is revoked due to the company's possible failure to comply with the terms of the gas transmission network ownership unbundling procedure within the established time frame. This is stated in the materials for the draft resolution on the introduction of public service obligations, which was prepared by the National Agency for Energy Regulation. In particular, the document proposes to assign Energocom public service obligations for natural gas for a period of three years and to oblige the state-owned company, instead of Moldovagaz, to ensure the supply of natural gas to certain categories of end users with established quality parameters at regulated, transparent, non-discriminatory, and easily comparable prices. The NAER recalled that the energy regulator had previously reduced the deadline for completing the separation of the owners of the natural gas transmission networks Moldovagaz and Moldovatransgaz from September 30, 2026, to July 31, 2025. There is an imminent risk that Moldovagaz will have its license and public service obligations revoked if the supplier Moldovagaz does not complete the unbundling procedure by July 31 under the conditions provided for in Article 28 of the Natural Gas Law. Taking into account the need to ensure predictability until the start of the 2025-2026 heating season, at the request of the Ministry of Energy, as well as in order to ensure the rights of end consumers, on April 17, 2025, the NAER announced the organization of a procedure for selecting a supplier/suppliers who will ensure the supply of natural gas for the next 3 years under the public service obligation, if Moldovagaz fails to comply by July 31 with the requirements of Article 28 of the Law on Natural Gas, which provides that the owner of natural gas transmission networks that is part of a vertically integrated gas enterprise must be independent, at least in terms of organization, decision-making and organizational and legal form, from other activities not related to the transmission, distribution or storage of natural gas. As a result, in the procedure for selecting a supplier/suppliers to ensure natural gas supplies under public service obligations, out of 33 holders of natural gas supply licenses, only two suppliers (Transautogaz and Energocom) expressed interest in participating in the selection procedure. On May 14, the commission for the selection of suppliers/public service providers established that one of the candidates (Transautogaz) did not meet the eligibility criteria set out in the Regulation on the imposition of public service obligations on natural gas suppliers. Given the insufficient number of applications to ensure minimum competition, the selection of a natural gas supplier (or suppliers) for the provision of public services for the supply of natural gas was terminated in accordance with paragraph 40 of the NAER Resolution on the approval of the Regulation on the imposition of public service obligations on natural gas suppliers, which stipulates that: “In cases where fewer than two applications for participation in the selection procedure are submitted or the applications for participation submitted by candidate suppliers do not meet the requirements of the announcement and these Regulations, the Commission shall inform the NAER Management Board and terminate the selection procedure. The Management Board of the National Energy Regulatory Agency appoints, by resolution, a supplier to whom the obligation to provide a public service is assigned for a term not exceeding three years from among a number of suppliers meeting the conditions set forth in Articles 89 and 90 of the Natural Gas Act. They stipulate that if following the competitive procedure no supplier has been selected for emergency supply, the Agency shall appoint a supplier for emergency supply for a period not exceeding three years by resolution. After examining the circumstances, the Agency shall be entitled to decide to impose the public service obligation for emergency supply on suppliers who supply natural gas to specific categories of end users in the context of the public service obligation, or on another natural gas supplier who meets at least the following conditions: is actively operating on the Moldovan natural gas market; has one of the highest aggregate natural gas supply turnover on the Moldovan natural gas market in the last calendar year preceding the year of the designation procedure; is separate from any other activity not related to trading and supply of natural gas; provides documentary evidence of the availability of sources for the supply of the required volume of natural gas. The NAER noted that there are currently 33 license holders for natural gas supply registered in Moldova. According to their reports, only 14 of them are active in the natural gas market, including Moldovagaz. An analysis of 13 natural gas supply licence holders in terms of their compliance with the requirements provided for in Articles 89 and 90 of the Natural Gas Law showed that only the supplier Energocom is subject to verification as a candidate for the imposition of the relevant obligations to provide public gas supply services, which also has the highest turnover for 2024, which is approximately 18-28 times higher than the turnover of its closest competitors analyzed by NAER. According to the information provided by the supplier, it has framework agreements for the sale and purchase of natural gas (EFET) concluded with Trafigura Trading (Europe) Sarl, Trafigura Nat Gas Limited, SNGN Romgaz SA, PGNiG Supply & Trading GmbH, OMV PETROM SA, ENGIE SA, and others. Since 2019, Energocom has been performing public service obligations to ensure the security of natural gas supplies in emergency situations in accordance with government decrees dated December 17, 2019, and August 10, 2022. For these reasons, Energocom's main activity has been focused on natural gas trading. However, the supplier currently also serves end users. In view of the above, taking into account the actual circumstances and the legal provisions cited above, the Management Board of the NAER proposes to entrust Energocom with the public service obligation for gas supply for a period of three years, replacing Moldovagaz. // 19.05.2025 — InfoMarket.
