From 5 August, the European rules on “coupled capacity” for gas become mandatory at all borders of the Republic of Moldova. The one that concerns us directly is at Ungheni: through the interconnection point here, 81.1% of all the gas imported by the country passed in 2025. It is the figure from the explanatory note of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE), which is now preparing the domestic rules for the new regime.
The rule sounds technical, but the dilemma it creates is simple. Meant to open the market, it demands something most Moldovan suppliers do not yet have: a fiscal and licensing footing inside the European Union. Without it, around 21 of the 31 suppliers licensed in Moldova would have to either open a place of business in Romania or post a guarantee of roughly one million euros each, in order to still be able to reserve capacity at the border.
What actually changes on 5 August
Today, a supplier reserves separately the exit capacity from the neighbouring country and the entry capacity into Moldova — two procedures that can be confirmed in one system and rejected in the other. Coupled capacity merges them into a single product, reserved through one procedure at both ends of the interconnection. The European Union’s stated objective is to simplify cross-border trade and to shift the market’s centre of gravity from the physical border points towards the gas exchanges.
The capacity already allocated at the annual auctions of 6 July escaped the new regime, because the reservation was made a month before it took effect. But the products put up for auction after 5 August will be fully under the new rules — including at Ungheni.
The licensing barrier: a place of business in Romania or one million euros
The first obstacle has to do with licensing. A firm from Moldova that wants direct access to coupled capacity at the border with Romania must comply with Romanian rules, which require companies from outside the Union to set up a local presence. An entity with a place of business in an EU state can bypass the obligation, but must instead post a financial guarantee of approximately one million euros.
Of the 31 suppliers licensed in the Republic of Moldova, roughly 21 have no legal presence in neighbouring jurisdictions. Applied to this group, the guarantee requirement would translate, according to a calculation cited by the British specialist agency ICIS, into a cumulative sum of around 21 million euros — a working figure, obtained by multiplying the number of suppliers by the one-million guarantee, not an official sum.
The VAT barrier, at the border with Ukraine
The second obstacle is fiscal and appears at the other border, with Ukraine. To access the Ukrainian virtual trading point, a trader must enter a full customs import regime, which triggers Ukraine’s 20% VAT. A non-resident operator has no right to reclaim it, so the tax becomes a cost that the operator bears.
It is not just Energocom’s perception. The Energy Community Regulatory Board, the body that oversees Moldova’s alignment with European rules, has flagged the same problem: non-resident shippers cannot recover VAT when reserving coupled capacity towards the Union’s states, and the lack of reciprocal obligations has meant that, until now, capacity has not even been offered on a coupled basis at these borders.
Energocom’s warning
Sergiu Lica, head of the Natural Gas Transactions Directorate at Energocom, explained to the ICIS agency why the architecture that makes coupled capacity work inside the Union is largely missing in Moldova. His statement was picked up by the energy portal RENERGY.md.
Energocom is prepared to comply with the new rules, but smaller companies, currently active at the regional level, risk being pushed out — at a direct cost to the competition the market needs. Sergiu Lica, head of the Natural Gas Transactions Directorate at Energocom, in a statement to the ICIS agency
The stake he raises is not winter supply — for the 2026–2027 cold season Energocom has already reserved capacity at Ungheni. The stake is the market’s structure: who can still buy gas directly at the border. And here the figures show a market already held in few hands. In 2025, Energocom covered 87.54% of imports, the concentration level calculated by ANRE is “extremely high”, and the number of suppliers active on the retail market fell from 15 to 13 in a year.
The other side: the rule that is meant to open the market
The authorities see it the other way around. For the Ministry of Energy and for ANRE, aggregated capacity and the possibility of transferring the right of use to another supplier mean precisely simpler access for small and medium firms and Moldova’s integration into the European gas market. Not by chance, ANRE’s draft amendment to the Network Code grew out of complaints from small suppliers, who feared that the European rule, applied directly, would push them out of the game. The draft proposes a mechanism by which a supplier that has reserved capacity can hand over the right of use to another, without additional licences across the border.
Both readings can be true at the same time: the rule’s intent is to open the market, but its effect, in the absence of reciprocal fiscal recognition between Chișinău, Bucharest and Kyiv, can go the opposite way. The solutions under discussion — mutual recognition of licences, a regional “shipper passport” and a VAT exemption for non-residents through an administrative clarification — exist for now only as proposals, with no adoption deadline.
What it does not mean for the household bill
The coupled-capacity rule does not raise the Ungheni resident’s bill on 5 August. It is a cost and an administrative barrier for the firms that buy gas, not a new tariff for the consumer. And the price increase being talked about these days — a recent Energocom request to ANRE to raise the gas price — comes from elsewhere: from the international price of gas, driven up amid tensions in the Middle East. They are two different stories that should not be glued together.
Beyond 5 August, the real stake is competition. If the new regime lets fewer and fewer suppliers pass through Ungheni, the gateway through which most of Moldova’s gas enters tightens around a single dominant player — and in a market with a single player there is no longer anyone to discipline the price.