“These products (supply services) are designed to facilitate the flow of natural gas from Greece to Ukraine via the Trans-Balkan infrastructure, contributing to the strengthening of regional energy security, diversification of supply sources and efficient use of transportation capacity, as requested by Moldova’s GTS operator Vestmoldtransgaz Ltd and a joint initiative of the natural gas transportation system operators of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine,” ANRE said in a statement.
The regulator specified that it means “two new special capacity products – Route 2 and Route 3 – which will be available between December 2025 and April 2026”.
The new services will be offered on a monthly basis through parallel auctions on the RBP platform using a single price algorithm, with discounts applied to the tariffs of the operators of the transit states.
“The introduction of these products will increase the volume of gas transit through Moldova’s transmission system and indirectly create prerequisites for optimizing tariffs for natural gas transportation services in the future,” the report said.
The regulator recalled that in May this year, the monthly service product “Route 1” was introduced for the use of interconnection points on the Trans-Balkan pipeline connecting the natural gas transportation systems of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.
In May this year, the operators of the gas transportation systems of Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine worked out a scheme to supply US liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Greece to Ukraine via a “vertical gas corridor”, agreeing on a single tariff for gas transit with a 25% discount. The aim of the project was to ensure gas injection into Ukraine’s storage facilities to prepare for the heating season.
In July, Moldovan Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu said that state-owned Energocom had successfully tested the delivery of LNG from the United States through the “vertical gas corridor” by pumping regasified fuel from a port in Greece to Ukrainian UGS facilities.
However, the route did not work due to high transit tariffs. And only after Romanian Transgaz and its Moldovan subsidiary Vestmoldtransgaz announced in late October that the route would not work due to high transit tariffs. announced on a 50% reduction of regulated tariffs for gas transportation to Ukraine via Romania and Moldova through the Trans-Balkan pipeline, the three companies booked its capacity for November. Before that, there was no interest in this route at all for two months.
In early November, the pipeline company ICGB, the independent operator of the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (IGB), together with the operators of the gas transportation systems of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, signed an agreement to launch two new routes for the delivery of natural gas from Greece to Ukraine. The gas transportation system operators of these countries proposed to make these routes available from December 2025 to April 2026.
According to ICGB, route 2 starts at the Amfitriti interconnection point on the DESFA network, passes through the Greek-Bulgarian interconnector (IGB) and then along the Trans-Balkan corridor: Amfitriti – Komotini (IGB) – Stara Zagora – Negru Voda 1/Kardam – Isakca 1/Orlivka – Causeni – Grebeniki.
Route 3 starts at the IGB interconnection point with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and follows the same route.
The design capacity of the “vertical gas corridor” in the Greece-Bulgaria direction is 3 billion cubic meters per year. The pipeline operator does not rule out increasing its capacity to 5 billion cubic meters depending on market interest.
