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Moldova’s contract with period of time, was never estimated and such used its oil refinery at 100% capacity and its
a programme can be agreed only as part of a
power plant close to its maximum level in
Gazprom is a major test broader political arrangement. the third quarter of this year, according to a
The next Moldova-EU Association
trading update sent to investors.
for new government in Council meeting will take place on October OMV Petorm increased its petroleum
28 in Brussels, and the topic could potentially products deliveries by 14% in Q3 compared
Chisinau be on the agenda, but nothing indicates that to the same period of 2020, driven by
the moderate recovery of the market but
this will be the case. A financial package for
Moldova’s diplomatic efforts were Moldova’s transition to a free market and particularly by the outage of the Petromidia
unsuccessfully directed at both Russia and clean energy would, however, be in line with refinery that stopped operations after an
the European Union in recent days, on the union’s commitment to Moldova and accident on July 2.
the subject of natural gas, the country’s its past investments such as the Romania- Petrom’s refinery operated at 100%
predominant energy source. Moldova natural gas interconnector and capacity in Q3, compared to 91% in the same
Moldova receives natural gas from Russia’s pipeline project. period last year.
Gazprom, which in recent days has hiked the Yet Moldova’s Foreign Affairs Minister Another lucrative market for Petrom
price overnight and cut deliveries at short Nicu Popescu failed, just like Spinu in St was that of electricity, where the prices have
notice after the previous long-term contract Petersburg, to put the energy issues on the soared.
expired on September 30. agenda during his recent visit to Brussels. Petrom’s power output doubled in
The gas contract negotiations with “We are in talks with the development quarterly terms and remained at a very high
Gazprom are a major test for the pro-EU partners [a term generally including the level at 1.37TWh in Q3 compared to 4.2TWh
regime in Chisinau, which has used a lot of European Union, Romania and other EU in 2020 and 3.4TWh in 2019.
energy on controversial justice reforms but member states and the US] in order to In the upstream sector, Petrom posted
not much on economic development. identify alternative solutions for the delivery less impressive figures when it comes to
Gazprom currently supplies natural gas of the natural gas” in case Moldova fails the output of both natural gas (-15% y/y)
to Moldova at a spot-based price of $790mn to restore the old long-term contract with and crude oil (-11% y/y). The decline in
under a bridge contract that covers two- Gazprom, Moldova’s deputy PM said in production was, however, more than offset
thirds of the country’s needs and ends at the rather broad terms. by the rising prices.
end of October. Russia promised to continue His statements were interpreted as a
deliveries on soft terms until a new contract call for help, but in fact there is little the
is negotiated, but after the old contract European Union can do for Moldova in this PKN Orlen to reuse CO2 to
expired it raised prices and cut deliveries. regard, at this moment.
Based on the long-term contract that Moldova is a relatively small natural gas pioneer green polymers
expired in September, Moldova would have consumer, and its problem will probably not
paid $214 per 1,000 cubic metres in Q4 this be a matter of natural gas availability, but a Polish refining giant PKN Orlen is exploring
year and $280 in Q1 next year. However, as matter of price. Technically, Moldovagaz can ways of using carbon dioxide to produce so-
prices rise on international markets, these bid and buy gas from Romania’s commodity called green polymers.
terms are visibly unacceptable for Russia exchange and bring it through the new Research on how to capture, store and
and setting them for the starting point in the pipeline, but the prices in Bucharest are high. especially reuse CO2 is taking place around
negotiations was unrealistic. Speaking of pipelines, the Romanian the world, with the plastic, soap and fabric
Moldova currently plans to return to gas transport company Transgaz (partly sectors making headway in harnessing the
long-term contracts and it will probably financed by a EU grant) just completed the greenhouse gas (GHG).
succeed — but not at the pre-crisis prices as infrastructure necessary to export natural gas “Right now we are finishing some
expected. to Chisinau. research in the laboratory and already we
This is despite an unproductive trip by But the pipeline, now partly owned by started purchasing pilot plans where CO2
Moldova’s deputy prime minister Andrei the European Bank for Reconstruction and will be the raw material...and at the end
Spinu to the International Gas Forum in St. Development (EBRD), will remain empty as we are expecting to have some polymers,”
Petersburg, where he hoped to meet with long as Gazprom sells Moldova gas at a price PKN Orlen’s director of innovation and new
Gazprom’s CEO Alexey Miller. lower than OMV Petrom and Romgaz. technology development, Arkadiusz Majoch,
“Unfortunately, for objective reasons, Helping Moldova to negotiate a lower said at a regional conference on carbon
the meeting with Miller did not take place,” price from Gazprom, by helping it to capture and utilisation (CCU).
announced Spinu upon his return on overcome short-term gas supply disruptions, He said Orlen had a minimum yearly
October 11. would not only mean destroying the value budget of PLN2bn ($509.2mn) to invest in
“I hope we can talk by the end of of the investments carried out by Transgaz developing and implementing technology
October,” he added. (and partly by the EBRD) in Moldova, across the group’s companies, and was
Political analyst Iulian Chifu argues but also encouraging its dependence on looking to implement the results of the
returning to long-term contracts with cheap Russian gas with all the political polymer pilot at one of them, possibly in
Gazprom would be a mistake. The alternative consequences.. Plock in central Poland.
is using European money to mitigate the All of the group’s more than 500 projects
social and economic impact of the transition qualified as decarbonisation or related
to market-based natural gas prices. The OMV Petrom operated its to decarbonisation, with some “strictly
Moldovan authorities estimate that they dedicated” to CCU, Majoch added when
need some €30mn this winter to cover 50% refinery at 100% capacity in asked how much of the budget would be
of the impact of doubling the gas price on ringfenced for CCU.
households. The financial package aimed at Q3 Under its 2030 strategy, Orlen plans to
helping Moldova’s transition to green energy, reduce CO2 emissions from existing refining
including by using gas at market price for a Romanian energy group OMV Petrom has and petrochemical assets by 20% and by 33%

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