The Romanian company Vestmoldtransgaz (previously owned by the Moldovan government) has been granted a five-year lease to manage Moldova’s gas transportation system.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Moldova, the relevant lease agreement was signed with Moldovatransgaz, a subsidiary of Moldovagaz.
Under the terms of the contract, Vestmoldtransgaz will also receive the existing maintenance contracts.
The transfer process is conditioned by Moldova’s obligations under the EU’s Third Energy Package, which provides for the unbundling of supply, transportation and distribution in the gas market.
In June 2023, Moldovagaz announced that it was not in time to complete the certification process and the separation of Moldovatransgaz from the parent company. In July, the government approved a draft law that prescribes the procedure for revoking the license of the GTS operator and transferring its assets to another company. The bill was approved in the first reading by the Moldovan parliament.
“Moldovagaz was established in 1999. Gazprom owns 50% of the company’s shares, the Moldovan government 35.33%, and the Transnistrian Property Management Committee 13.44%.
“Vestmoldtransgaz operates the Iaşi-Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline between Romania and Moldova. The company was established in 2014 and sold to Eurotransgaz (a subsidiary of the Romanian state-owned Transgaz) in 2018. The shareholders are currently Transgaz (75%) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) (25%).
