Gas Consumption in Moldova Has Increased Significantly in Recent Years

Residents of the right bank of the Dniester consume about 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This includes both technical losses and technological flowrate (gas consumption to ensure the parameters required for natural gas transportation). Most of the energy is distributed between residential consumers and centralized thermal power plants (TPP). State institutions have the lowest gas consumption, while economic agents rank third among gas consumers in the country, agora.md reports. Over the past few years, gas consumption by household consumers has grown sharply: from 302.8 million m3 in 2017 to 372.7 million in 2020. Energy expert Sergiu Tofilat believes that this is due to the fact that during this period a large number of new household consumers were connected to the grid. On the other hand, economic agents have annually used the same amount of gas for years. According to experts, almost 80 percent of the annual consumption accounts for the cold season. According to the table below, TPP consumption has decreased in recent years. The reason might be the modernization of equipment that reduces gas consumption, Tofilat said. If we include the Transdniestrian region here, then gas consumption on both banks of the Dniester will amount to about three billion cubic meters of gas. The largest gas consumers on the left bank of the Dniester are the MoldGRES thermal power plant and the MMZ metallurgical plant. MoldGRES only consumes as much gas as the whole Republic of Moldova. On October 22, the Parliament voted to impose a state of emergency in the energy sector for a period of 30 days. According to Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, this move was necessary to ensure the rapid purchase of natural gas. This happened at a time when natural gas prices on the international market had risen sharply, and the central authorities had not yet managed to come to a common denominator with Gazprom representatives to sign a new contract. Energocom was instructed to find alternative solutions for gas delivery to the country. Recall that on Friday, October 29, negotiations between the Moldovan and Russian delegations on the natural gas supply to the Republic of Moldova completed. They included many rounds in various formats both with Gazprom in St. Petersburg and with the administration of the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow. The last round of negotiations lasted three days from October 27 to October 29 in St. Petersburg and ended with the signing of an agreement between the two sides for a period of five years. The authorities assure that the new contract uses the price formula proposed by the Moldovan side.