With Poland’s latest deal with Moldova, Poland continues to support energy diversification in the Central-Eastern European region. The state-owned Polish Oil Mining and Gas Extraction Company (PGNiG) has won a tender in cooperation with Ukrainian-American Energy Resources of Ukraine (ERU) to sell natural gas to Moldova, which will be the first natural gas supply — outside of Russia’s own pipeline — in the country’s history.
The one-time supply of 1 million cubic meters of gas will reach Moldova this week. The tender was urgently organized by state-owned company Energocom due to the restriction on gas supply to Moldova by Russia’s Gazprom. According to the Moldovan government, Energocom received seven offers.
Moldova’s previous contract with Russia expired on Sept. 30, 2021, and both sides had agreed to extend it by a month. In October 2021. Moldova receives gas from Russia at the price of $790 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas while the price was only $550 in September.
Gazprom had declared readiness to extend the contract into November under the condition that Moldova would regulate payments for supply in September and October.
On Saturday, the Moldovan parliament announced the introduction of a state of emergency due to the gas crisis in the country. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita announced a day earlier that the pressure in the country’s gas supply system was at a critical level.
In response to the crisis and tender, PGNiG CEO Paweł Majewski declared that the company was deeply connected to the rule of energy solidarity which was considered a condition in the proper activity of the gas market in the EU and neighbouring countries.
“Directed by this rule, PGNiG decided to take part in the tender whose goal was the swift delivery of natural gas to the Moldovan economy in the situation when it has issues with supply from Russia,” he said.
PGNiG informed that the gas supply from Poland will take place via a pick-up point on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. The contract will be fulfilled in cooperation with ERU who is PGNiG’s leading partner in Ukraine.
