NAER plans to impose obligations on the provision of a public service for the supply of natural gas in case of emergency to Moldovagaz throughout the territory of Moldova for another 3 years.
This is provided for by a draft of the relevant resolution, which the National Regulatory Agency plans to adopt in accordance with Art. 11 and 90 of the Natural Gas Law and Art. 16 of the Energy Law. The document was published on the site of the energy regulator. The draft resolution of NAER on imposing an obligation to provide a public service for the supply of natural gas in an emergency also stipulates that in the event of the circumstances provided for in paragraphs (1) and (4) of Art. 90 of the Law on Natural Gas, JSC Moldovagaz is obliged to ensure the supply of natural gas in the territory indicated by the agency. It should be noted that part 1 of Art. 90 of the Natural Gas Law "Emergency Supplies" stipulates that end consumers who have lost their supplier due to certain circumstances (termination of activities by the supplier, suspension or withdrawal of the license issued to the supplier, the supplier is not able to ensure the supply of natural gas), have the right to supply for a specified period of time by a natural gas supplier fulfilling an obligation to provide a public service of securing supplies in case of emergency. By its resolution, NAER may impose on one or several suppliers the obligation to provide a public service of securing the supply in case of emergency. In the event of the above circumstances, the supplier, as a last resort, supplies natural gas to end consumers who have lost their supplier, on regulated terms and at regulated prices approved by NAER. Upon receipt of notification, the agency identifies a last resort supplier operating within the territory where the respective end-users are consumed, and decides to secure a last-resort supply to end-users served by a supplier that ceases to supply or is unable to supply natural gas. The supplier, as a last resort, accepts end users on the basis of an agency order, without a special statement from these end users. The NAER notes that currently 26 license holders for the supply of natural gas are registered in Moldova, of which only 12, according to the reports they provided, are valid. Regarding the supply of natural gas by these suppliers, NAER clarified that as of January 1, 2021, the total number of serviced residential consumers reached 761,650, and non-residential consumers - 15052. At the same time, Moldovagaz served on the indicated date 736599 residential consumers and 14493 non-residential consumers, which is 97.3% of the total volume of consumers in Moldova. At the same time, Moldovagaz is the only importer of natural gas to Moldova, which is purchased from Gazprom with a volume of 1 billion 126.3 million cubic meters and from JSC CIS GAZ (Romania) with a volume of 0.6 million cubic meters. In 2020, the total volume of purchases of natural gas "Moldovagaz" amounted to 1 billion 127 million cubic meters. Of the total imports 1 billion 008.5 million cubic meters was supplied by "Moldovagaz" to end consumers, and only 118.5 million cubic meters (11%) were supplied by other suppliers to end consumers. The NAER notes that local natural gas is used in some settlements of the Cantemir region, but the volumes of its production and supply are insignificant - about 0.1 million cubic meters, which is not enough for the corresponding settlements in the cold season. In this situation, for all the other 12 license holders engaged in the supply of natural gas, Moldovagaz is the only supplier from which they buy natural gas. // 14.09.2021 — InfoMarket
