OREANDA-NEWS. March 18, 2011. Moldova increased the volume of purchase and consumption of Russian natural gas in 2010 for the first time for the last four years. Moldova (without the Transnistrian region) increased import of natural gas, supplied by the Gazprom, by 5.5% in 2010 in comparison with 2009 – to 1,187.8 million cubic meters, and the volume of its consumption in the republic grew 5.8% - to 1,089.8 million cubic meters, the National Energy Regulatory Agency reported.

The tendency of the increase in the volumes of purchase and consumption of Russian gas, seen in 2011 for the first time after a 4-year stagnation in 2006-2009, is explained by the growth of gas consumption by all categories of consumers. Unlike previous years, the biggest growth of gas consumption in Moldova in 2010 was reported by economic agents, which don’t work in the energy sector, - by 14.6% (they consumed 240.6 million cubic meters).

Gas consumption by the population increased 6.5% - to 340.5 million cubic metes, by public institutions – by 5.7% - to 50.9 million cubic meters, by enterprises of the energy sector – by 1.2% - to 457.8 million cubic meters.

In this connection, the proportions in the structure of gas consumption by Moldovan consumers underwent the following changes: the share of the energy sector enterprises reduced by 1.9 percentage points and made up 42%, the share of other economic agents grew 1.7 p.p. – to 22.1%, the share of household consumers increased 0.2 p.p., to 31.2%, and the share of public institutions remained on the level of 2009, constituting 4.7%.

In 2010, all 12 gas distributing enterprises of the Moldovagaz JSC increased natural gas supplies to consumers. The biggest increase was reported by the Balti-gas Ltd. – by 11.8 million cubic meters (13.2%), Floresti-gas Ltd. – by 10.8 million cubic meters (28.3%), Ungheni-gas Ltd – by 3 million cubic meters (14.4%). The rest of the enterprises increased the supplies by less than 4%.