Head of the National Energy Regulatory Agency: Moldova Is Unable to Purchase Gas When It Seems Cheap

Moldova cannot purchase large volumes of gas during periods of low prices due to the lack of its own storage facilities and limited capacity to use storage facilities in other countries. This was stated by Alexandru Ursu, head of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE). “As a country, we didn’t really have the opportunity to buy gas when, as we see it, it was cheap. Even if we knew today's gas price was the cheapest of the whole year, what would we do with that gas?” said Ursu, as quoted by bani.md One option is to store gas in Ukraine. However, according to the head of the National Energy Regulatory Agency, this option carries significant risks. Despite transit discounts and special corridors for transportation and storage, international companies are in no hurry to store large volumes of gas there. Another possibility is underground storage facilities in Romania. Their total capacity is about 3 billion cubic meters, while Moldova’s annual consumption is approximately 900 million cubic meters. “Is Romania willing to provide us with a third of that capacity? No,” Ursu said. He emphasized that the problem lies primarily in Moldova’s lack of significant gas storage capacity and domestic fuel sources. “It’s not that easy to store it. We have neither storage facilities nor natural gas sources,” said the head of ANRE.