Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 35 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Germany sets up holding firm to nationalise

former Gazprom business

GERMANY GERMANY’S government has set up a hold- the company and Gazprom’s other former units
ing company to nationalise the former German in Europe, amid concerns that they would be
Moscow could make subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom in the event of nationalised.
retaliatory moves. an emergency, Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper Moscow could respond to the nationalisation
reported on August 2. by seizing remaining German assets in Russia,
Preparations for the nationalisation process including the properties of Wintershall Dea, a
are more advanced than previously assumed, the German gas producer.
newspaper said, noting that the holding com- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet
pany had been created in secret so that nation- ended a two-day retreat on August 30 where
alisation could take place quickly. they discussed potential measures to prevent a
Gazprom Germania, which has since been further surge in energy prices, but no such meas-
renamed Securing Energy for Europe, is cur- ures have been announced yet. The government
rently under the trusteeship of the Federal Net- is calling on all businesses, households and other
work Agency. energy users to cut consumption, but it is yet to
“The purpose of the [holding] company is to impose rationing.
ensure security of supply in the energy sector,” While Germany has managed to fill its gas
the newspaper quoted company documents as storage facilities faster than anticipated, it was
saying. dealt a further blow on August 30 when Gaz-
German authorities seized control of Gaz- prom closed down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline
prom Germania in April, in order to safeguard for three days of maintenance. There are fears
its energy security amid the risk of cuts in Rus- that Russia could leave the pipeline offline, to
sian gas supply to the country. The Kremlin put further pressure on Germany to make con-
subsequently hit back by placing sanctions on cessions in the Ukraine crisis. ™

Moldovagaz to disconnect debtors as it

struggles to pay Russian gas bills

MOLDOVA MOLDOVAN natural gas company Moldo- 104-105 of the Regulation on the supply of nat-
vagaz warned on August 29 that it will start dis- ural gas, approved by [market regulator] ANRE
The company is coping connecting customers that have failed to meet Decision no. 113/2019 of April 19, 2019, JSC
with customer arrears final payment deadlines. Moldovagaz will order the procedure for dis-
on one hand and debt The warning comes as Moldovagaz is strug- connecting the natural gas installations of debtor
payment demands from gling to pay its bills to Russian Gazprom. Gaz- consumers,” the company said.
Gazprom on the other. prom and Moldovagaz extended the gas supply Disconnections will start from August 29 for
contract for a period of five years in October non-domestic consumers and September 1 for
2021. Since then, Moldovagaz has struggled to domestic consumers.
pay its bills to Gazprom, several times coming Earlier this month, Moldovagaz estimated
close to having its supplies cut off. that it will accumulate financial deviations of
The company said the warning refers to nearly MDL2bn (€100mn) in January-Septem-
customers who failed to pay their July bills by ber this year.
August 15 for non-domestic consumers and The financial deviations resulting from insuf-
August 20 for domestic consumers. ficient end-user prices compared to the import
As of August 25, the outstanding debt for nat- cost already reached MDL954mn in Janu-
ural gas was MDL55.9mn (€2.9mn), including ary-July, according to Moldovagaz’s CEO Vadim
MDL19.3mn for non-household consumers and Ceban. As the import price asked by Gazprom
MDL36.6mn for household consumers. increased significantly in August and will rise
“In this context, with the aim of avoiding an further in September, the deviations will reach
increase in the final consumers' debt balance MDL409mn this month and MDL623mn next
for the supplied natural gas, pursuant to points month. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 02•September•2022