Moldova cuts gas use in November to less than half last year's indicator - Moldovagaz

CHISINAU. Dec 12 (Interfax) - Moldova consumed 63.1 million cubic meters of natural gas in November, down 55.5% in comparison with a year ago, the national gas operator, Moldovagaz, said in a statement on Monday.

Compared to October 2022, there was an increase of 33.5 million cubic meters, or by a factor of 2.1, the statement said.

Households paid (as of November 30) 99.1% of outstanding bills, or 0.1 percentage points more than a year earlier. For businesses, their share of payment reached 99.3% (up 0.5 percentage points). Fuel and energy enterprises paid 99.9% (up 0.3 percentage points).

Under the law on the Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund, household consumers (568,000 accounts) have been paid a compensation of 357.9 million leu (over $18 million) in total for the gas used in November.

Over the month, electricity was disconnected to 617 consumptions points, whose owners were 1.5 million leu indebted to the supplier, and 380 consumers have been told to switch to prepayment, having previously failed to pay bills on time.

In total, 10.569 billion leu ($550 million) has been paid for the gas consumed this year until November 30, which covers 99.4% of the volume delivered, Moldovagaz said.

It was reported that since October 1 Moldova has cut its daily gas use of 8.06 million cubic meters by 30% to 5.7 million cubic meters. Gazprom put it down to technical issues relating to restricted gas transit via Ukraine. In November and December Gazprom has supplied Moldova with same quantities of gas: 5.07 million cubic meters a day, less than 40% from what it needs at this time of year.

Since December 1, Moldova has been sending all of its Gazprom gas to Transdniestria (left bank of Dniester), which in return covers more than 50% Moldova's electricity needs. The right bank of Dniester has been using gas from the reserves created earlier; the left bank does not pay Gazprom for the gas.