Ukraine, Moldova and Romania have agreed to sign an agreement to increase cross-border capacity to increase electricity trade, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“We reached several important agreements today to develop our relations in the energy sector, and our teams will continue to work on their implementation. In particular, we agreed to sign a trilateral intergovernmental agreement on increasing cross-border capacity to increase the volume of electricity trade,” Kuleba said at the meeting. press conference in Odessa on Thursday.
Kuleba drew attention to the fact that the meeting in the format of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Energy of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania is taking place for the first time.
“Three of our countries, and immediately foreign ministers and energy ministers. There is a very clear reason and goal for this – we want to build qualitatively new relations in the energy sector between our three countries, and this will be important not only for energy, but also for security and prosperity in our region,” the minister stressed.
Currently, Ukraine exports electricity to Moldova in the amount of about 165 MWh, with a possible maximum of 600 MWh, and to Romania – 150 MWh.
Moldovan state company Energocom will buy 10 million cubic meters of natural gas for $16.6 million from Moldovagaz, which gets gas from Russia’s Gazprom, Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Andrei Spinu said on his Telegram channel, citing a decision made by the country’s National Commission for Emergency Situations.
“This transaction will also enable Moldovagaz to pay the advance for August by September 1,” Spinu said.
It was reported earlier that the the National Commission for Emergency Situations, which is chaired by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, had ordered state company Energocom to buy 10 mcm of natural gas for storage in Romania.
The gas will be purchased and delivered under a framework EFET (European Federation of Energy Traders) type purchase-sale contract between Energocom and Moldovagaz, the government’s press service told Interfax.
For the first tranche of 5 mcm, the purchase price will be about $1,459 per 1,000 cubic meters. The second tranche of the gas purchase will be made in September at a price of $1,881 per 1,000 cubic meters.
The gas will be stored in neighboring Romania, as Moldova does not have its own gas storage facilities.
Moldovagaz was unable to pay an advance to Gazprom for supplies in August and the Russian company agreed to defer the payment to September 1. Moldovagaz said that current gas rates in the country do not cover its purchase price.
The commission also decided to allocate MDL 322 million from the state budget to increase Energocom’s charter capital.
From September 1, 2022, Ukrainian carriers will be able to travel to Moldova under new simplified rules, according to the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
“After the signing of the “transport visa-free regime” with the countries of the European Union, Moldova remained the only state on our borders with which the permit regime for Ukrainian carriers was not completely abolished. Given the large volume of cargo that is now going towards Moldova, the signing of a bilateral protocol removes the risk of stopping our exports,” the ministry stressed.
The permit regime will be maintained for non-scheduled passenger traffic (next year, the parties will exchange 2,200 permits) and for traffic to or from third countries (Ukraine will receive 10,000 permits by 2023).
“Bilateral cancellation of permits for international freight transportation, the opening a few days ago of the Berezyne-Basarabeasca railway section, which has not been operating for more than 20 years, are excellent examples of cooperation in the transport sector, strengthening interaction between Ukraine and Moldova. Now our task is to make the most of new opportunities for strengthening the economies of our countries in the face of the threats posed by Russian military aggression and Russian policy in general,” Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development of Moldova Andrei Spinu said that next month Moldova will buy 30% of the missing electricity from two Ukrainian companies.
The Ukrainian companies Energoatom and Ukrhydroenergo will supply Moldova with 30% of the electricity it lacks in August. Of the total capacity, 20% will go to Energoatom, and 10% to Ukrhydroenergo at the same price. Both companies will supply electricity at the same price – $77/MWh,” Spinu wrote on his Telegram channel page on Friday.
He recalled that 70% will be supplied by the Moldavskaya GRES (located in Transnistria and owned by the Russian group Inter RAO UES) at a price of $59.9/MWh, according to the contract concluded for July-August. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the weighted average price of supplies in August will be $65.03/MWh.
“Such a price makes it possible to maintain the electricity tariff for citizens and the economy at the same level,” Spinu said.
Earlier it was reported that Moldova buys electricity from the Moldovan state district power station. At the same time, since March, contracts are concluded for only one month. This is due to the energy crisis and unstable gas prices. Because of Gazprom’s reduction of gas supplies to Transnistria in May, Moldavskaya GRES warned Chisinau that it would be able to supply only 70% of the required amount of electricity to the right bank of the Dniester. Since May, Moldova has been buying the missing amount of electricity from Ukraine.
Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Chuque said that after the commissioning of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector on Thursday, his country will be able to supply natural gas to Moldova and Ukraine, European Pravda reports with reference to the Romanian news portal Digi24.
“Essentially, this interconnector will connect the network passing through Anatolia and the Adriatic, as well as connect to the BRUA pipeline, thus ensuring gas supplies to Bulgaria and Romania,” Chuquet said at a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“And, of course, we can provide gas supplies to our eastern partners – Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova and other countries according to the distribution scheme of this gas network,” the Romanian prime minister added.
COMMISSIONING, GAS, GREECE-BULGARIA, INTERCONNECTOR, MOLDOVA, ROMANIA, UKRAINE
Moldova is ready to continue providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine and to accept more refugees from Ukraine, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said.
“The Moldovan government has also provided humanitarian aid in Vinnytsia, Odesa, Chernivtsi and Mykolaiv regions to cover all the growing needs of the people who live there, and we are ready to continue to provide this assistance,” Sandu said at a press conference following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday.
Sandu pointed out that about 500,000 people from Ukraine went to Moldova after Russia’s large-scale aggression. According to her, there are still 73,000 refugees from Ukraine in Moldova, 42,000 of whom are children.
“I confirmed our readiness to provide them with all the necessary support and accept more people if necessary,” Sandu assured.
