Moldova extends three gas transit routes for Ukraine until Sept 30

CHISINAU. April 16 (Interfax) - Moldova's National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) on Thursday decided to extend permission for three routes for natural gas transportation through the Trans-Balkan Gas Pipeline, which is part of the Vertical Gas Corridor, until the end of the gas year on September 30, 2026, ANRE said.

These routes enable the transportation of natural gas from Greece, including from LNG terminals, as well as LNG supplies from the United States, via Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova to Ukraine, including into underground storage facilities, it said.

At the end of May 2025, the Route 1 monthly transit service product was introduced to use interconnection points on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline linking the Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian, Moldovan, and Ukrainian gas transportation systems from June to October 2025.

ICGB, an independent operator of the Greek-Bulgarian interconnector IGB, and the gas transport systems of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine signed an agreement at the start of November last year to launch two new routes for natural gas deliveries from northern Greece to Ukraine. They proposed that two routes, Routes 2 and 3, be available from December 2025 until April 2026.

Gas transit capacity through the route system is booked monthly through parallel auctions using a single price algorithm and with discounts applied to the tariffs of transit country operators.

The full capacity of the Vertical Gas Corridor in the Greece-Bulgaria direction totals 3 billion cubic meters per year, and the pipeline operator has said that this could be increased to 5 bcm if there is enough demand from the market.