
The Romanian Commodity Exchange has opened a subsidiary BRM East Energy in Moldova, which will create platforms for trading in natural gas and electricity from the beginning of 2022.
This was announced by the President of the Romanian Commodity Exchange Gabriel Purice, noting that the emphasis will be placed on balancing the gas system in the Republic of Moldova. According to him, the Romanian Commodity Exchange, which trades over 70% of the domestic natural gas consumption in Romania, is cooperating with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as with representatives of the Energy Community, in order to create the legal framework necessary for balancing activities. After clarifying all aspects of regulation, BRM East Energy will be able to manage the balancing market as well as other gas markets such as the next day market, intraday, monthly, quarterly and yearly. Gabriel Purice said that there could also be products for the electricity trade, but unfortunately the competition is limited. The electricity market in Moldova is dominated by a large supplier from Transnistria - Moldavian State District Power Plant. Competition in the gas market is also still low, but the head of the Romanian Commodity Exchange is confident that it can grow, since Moldova is now connected with Romania and Ukraine through the Trans-Balkan corridor and the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline with a capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. Although Transgaz has been auctioning capacity at its connecting point in Ungheni for almost a week now, no applications have yet been made to reserve export capacity. The trading arm of the Polish PGNiG group, in partnership with the American-Ukrainian group ERU, won the first natural gas tender successfully completed by Energocom, which was commissioned by the Moldovan authorities to import gas to balance the national transportation system, which is in critical parameters due to disagreements with the past and present supplier "Gazprom". This was the first gas supply to Moldova from a non-Russian source. The second tender for the supply of gas to Moldova was won by the Dutch company Vitol, which will also supply our country with trial volumes of 1 million cubic meters of gas. // 27.10.2021 - InfoMarket