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Moldova’s gas operator demands increase of domestic fees

MoldovaGaz asked the government two weeks ago to raise the fee by 21%

CHISINAU, September 15 (Itar-Tass) – Moldova’s natural gas operator company, MoldovaGaz, has reiterated its demand that the authorities should increase the domestic fees for gas by 28% to $ 515 per thousand cubic meters.

The demand was made public Thursday by Victor Parlicov, the director of the National Agency for Energy Sector Regulation /ANRE/.

“We’ll scrutinize the supplier company’s demand but a smaller fee will be endorsed in most likelihood, although the margins for maneuvering are rather narrow in a situation where the price of imported gas accounts for 85% to 90% of the fee,” Parlicov said.

MoldovaGaz asked the government two weeks ago to raise the fee by 21%. It explained for the reasons by saying the price of Russian natural gas for Moldova is due to go up to $ 400 per thousand cubic meters from the current $ 367.

However, the ANRE refused to do upward revisions of prices until March 31, 2012.

In the light of it, Alexander Gussev, the CEO of MoldovaGaz which is a Moldovan-Russian joint venture, warned the company had a clear prospect of running into a loss of $ 40 million by the yearend.

He indicated that the previous revision of the fees occurred in May 2010.

MoldovaGaz joint-stock company was set up in 1999. Its major shareholders are the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom /50%/, the Moldovan government /35.3%/ and the government of the unrecognized Dniester Republic /13.44%//

Minority shareholders have 1.23% shares.