Ceban: The Upward Trend in Gas Prices Was Seen Back in September and Reported to the Energy Ministry

The Moldovagaz company informed the Energy Ministry about the tendency of natural gas prices increase, which indicated the need to raise the tariff, the company’s acting chairman of the board of directors, Vadim Ceban, said. However, Ceban claimed that the sudden price increase occurred, in particular, in October and November, ziua.md wrote. The clarification was made in the context of the fact that Prime Minister Dorin Recean assured at the government meeting on 11 September that the gas and electricity tariffs will remain unchanged this heating season, and that the speculations on this subject are of electoral nature. “In September and October, prices were still rising. There was a tendency that prices would rise, we have talked about it many times, we have informed the Ministry of Energy and the regulator about it, but once again: no one expected such a sharp rise, especially in the fourth quarter in October, November and December. These are markets that no one can influence. They have their own rules and principles of operation. I said that there are no preconditions for tariff reduction. Everyone was awaiting reduction, and prices on the international market and TTF rose sharply during this period. We do not want high tariffs for consumers, because it affects consumption, but the situation is such that we do not want to accumulate financial deviations later. There is a law, and according to the law, in such situations ANRE has the right to approve decisions within a more limited timeframe,” Vadim Cheban said. At the same time, the acting head of Moldovagaz explained that the basis of the request submitted to ANRE was, first of all, the increase of the natural gas purchase prices in the fourth quarter of 2024 at the regional and international level by 31.3%, against the forecast indicator included in the regulated prices in force since May. “We knew about this back in early November to late October, that natural gas prices were rising in the fourth quarter and were higher than projected in May, when there was a decline. That’s why at the regional and national level, the increase in natural gas purchase prices is more than 30% over projections, which is actually a lot. By law, we have to ask the regulator to revise the tariffs. This is the main task. We should not forget that transit tariffs have been increased, which also affects the final volume of natural gas supplies to consumers, so this is also an important factor. Financial deviations are also a crucial point,” Vadim Ceban explained.