OREANDA-NEWS. January 12, 2015. The National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) today decided to issue the Vestmoldtransgaz state company the licence for transporting gas via the Iasi – Ungheni gas pipeline, and, in the future, up  to Chisinau. The authorisation was provided for a 25-year period, according to a decision of the ANRE Board of Directors.

Vestmoldtransgaz is the second Moldovan enterprise that holds a licence for transporting gas.

The mentioned company was created on the basis of the government decision from June 2014. It is in charge of maintaining the portion of the Iasi-Chisinau gas pipeline on Moldova’s territory and gas measuring station, as well as making capital repairing works to these assets when necessary.

Under the agreement signed with OMV Petrom Gas on 22 December 2014, Moldova will import gas from Romania at a price of 1,010 Romanian Lei for 1,000 cubic meters, meaning about 277 dollars. The price is lower by 55 dollars than the one set by Gazprom Russian company for 2015.
"It is a new beginning for the gas alternative sources in Moldova. The contract enters into force on 1 January 2015. The initial quantities will be small, in order to check and test the system, afterwards it will be possible to monthly order for the next month by signing annexes. In 2015, we will start to build the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline," Acting Economics Minister Andrian Candu said after signing the agreement.

The lack of the licence for Vestmoldtransgaz was one of the reasons for delaying the gas supplies via the Iasi – Ungheni gas pipeline, announced for 1 January 2015.

The Iasi – Ungheni gas pipeline was officially launched on 27 August 2014, on Moldova’s Independence Day. The project’s total cost is of 26 million euros, of which 7 million represent a grant provided by the European Union. The gas pipeline has a total length of 43.2 kilometres, a capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas, of which Romania will initially supply a quantity of up to 50 de million cubic meters yearly.

The National Agency for Energy Regulation discussed pre-feasibility study of the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline in a meeting in early past December. The cost for building the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline is estimated to 70 million euros. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will finance the working out of the feasibility study and Fichtener German company will provide consultancy services.