Moldova purchases all necessary gas for heating season, stores emergency reserves at underground facilities in Ukraine, Romania

CHISINAU. Oct 8 (Interfax) - The Moldovan state company Energocom has finished purchasing gas for the heating season and has created an emergency back-up reserve of gas in underground gas storage reserves in Ukraine and Moldova, Moldovan Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu said.

"The heating season has begun. We are ready for the winter. Energocom has purchased all the gas necessary for the 2025-2026 heating season. Our emergency reserve consists of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, stored in Romania and Ukraine," Junghietu is quoted as saying by state news agency Moldpres.

He said that Energocom had also signed all the electricity import contracts which it had planned. "All work has been carried out according to plan. 100% of coal has been purchased, and fuel oil in the same proportion," the minister said.

In mid-September, Junghietu said that Energocom had purchased 700 million cubic meters of gas for the approaching heating seaon, which covers around 90% of the energy needs of right-bank Moldova.

At the beginning of August, the board of directors of the National Agency for Energy Regulation of the Republic of Moldova (ANRE) voted to revoke the license under which Moldovagaz supplied gas to right-bank Moldova, transferring these powers to state company Energocom from September 1. The Moldovan government has reported that it loaned 400 million euros for gas purchasing from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Right-bank Moldova has been buying gas on the European market since December 2022.