LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

of December 23, 2009 No. 123

About natural gas

The parliament adopts this organic law.

This law creates necessary basis for application of the Directive 2003/55/EU of the European Parliament and Council of June 26, 2003 about general rules of the domestic market of natural gas and cancellation of the Directive 98/30/EU published in the Official magazine of the European Union No. L 176 of July 15, 2003 and also the Directive 2004/67/EU of the European Parliament and Council of April 26, 2004 about measures for safety of supply with natural gas published in the Official magazine of the European Union No. L 127 of April 29, 2004.

Chapter I. General provisions

Article 1. Law purpose

 The purpose of this law are: creation of the legal basis for effective functioning of the natural gas market and implementation of activities in the sector of natural gas in the conditions of availability, availability, reliability, uninterruptedness, competition, transparency and with observance of regulations of quality, safety and environmental protection; establishment of the measures for safety of supply with natural gas aimed at providing proper functioning of the natural gas market; establishment of powers and obligations of participants of the natural gas market, and also enforcement of the non-discriminatory procedures characteristic of safety of supply with natural gas conforming to national standards.

Article 2. Scope of application

This law extends on:

a) production of combustible gas (further - natural gas);

b) storage of natural gas;

c) transfer of natural gas, including cross-border flows of natural gas;

d) distribution of natural gas;

e) supply of natural gas;

f) import and natural gas export;

g) determination and approval of regulated rates for natural gas and on the provided services;

h) licensing of types of activity in the natural gas market;

i) natural gas market;

j) functioning of system of natural gas;

k) safety and reliability of supply with natural gas of final consumers;

l) protection of the rights of final consumers;

m) regulated access for the third parties to networks of natural gas;

n) assessment of conformity of natural gas.

Article 3. Basic principles of regulation

(1) For the purpose of ensuring energy security, environmental protection, protection of the rights and consumer interests natural gas shall be made, be stored, be transferred, be distributed, be delivered and be consumed in the most effective way.

(2) the Basic principles of the organization and regulation of activities in the sector of natural gas are:

a) providing to the third parties, both physical, and legal, non-discriminatory and regulated access to networks of natural gas, including on the based on costs, transparent and predictable rates;

b) creation of optimal conditions for ensuring independence, first of all from the point of view of decision making, operators of gas storages, operators of the transferring networks and operators of distribution networks from suppliers or producers of natural gas;

c) promotion and ensuring the competition in the natural gas market;

d) providing favorable conditions for implementation of necessary investments in system of natural gas, including for expansion of the transferring and distribution networks of natural gas;

e) respect for the principle of maximum efficiency in case of the minimum costs in case of production, storage, transfer, distribution and supply of natural gas, when functioning system of natural gas;

f) protection of legitimate interests of final consumers;

g) ensuring sufficient handling capacity of the transferring network of natural gas, sufficient capacity of production and intersystem communication with the transferring networks of natural gas of neighboring countries for the purpose of stable and reliable functioning of system of natural gas;

h) establishment of measures for providing as safety of supply with natural gas of final consumers, and process of assessment of conformity.

Article 4. Basic concepts

The basic concepts used in this law mean the following:

access to network - the right of physical persons and legal entities to use of services in transfer and/or distribution of natural gas on the terms of this law, including on connection to networks of natural gas and to the above-located network of gas pipelines of installations on production, gas storages, installations of liquefied natural gas (further - LNG) and installations of consumers by means of installations for connection;

quality of natural gas - the physical and chemical characteristics of natural gas established by the national standard "natural combustible gases for industrial and household function";

the direct gas pipeline - the additional gas pipeline to the joint networks of natural gas;

the consumer - the wholesale or final consumer of natural gas;

the wholesale consumer - physical person - the individual entrepreneur or the legal entity acquiring natural gas for the purposes of resale in system of natural gas or beyond its limits;

the residential customer - the physical person buying and consuming natural gas for domestic needs; the exception is constituted by business or professional activity;

the final consumer - the residential customer or not residential customer buying natural gas for own consumption;

not residential customer - the physical person or legal entity acquiring and consuming natural gas for other needs than household; control over the company - situation in which the gas company owing to the rights which it is allocated owing to the signed agreements or any otherwise separately or jointly and proceeding from legal or actual circumstances can influence in a decisive way other gas companies, in particular by means of:

a) ownerships on the property right or uses of all assets of the company or their part;

b) acquisitions of rights or the conclusions of the agreements allowing to influence in a decisive way structure, voting power or decision making of the company by governing bodies;

overconsumption of natural gas – day-to-day consumption of natural gas in the cold season (from October to March) exceeding for 20 percent at least than the level of average daily consumption registered during the cold climatic periods fixed statistically each 20 years which direct consequence violation of balance in the transferring network of natural gas is;

the long-term agreement of purchase of natural gas – the agreement of purchase of natural gas signed for the term exceeding 10 years;

gas storage - the equipment used for storage of natural gas, belonging and/or operated by person including the part of the LNG installations used for storage, but excepting the part used for production and excepting the equipment used only by the operator of the transferring network for implementation of the licensed activities;

distribution of natural gas - transportation of natural gas through distribution network of natural gas for the purpose of delivery to consumers, but not including delivery;

balance between the demand and supply - accomplishment of the expected needs of consumers for natural gas without the need for application of measures for reducing consumption;

the measuring equipment - the device or system for measurement of amount of the delivered natural gas and, if necessary, consumption of natural gas for the purpose of the statement of invoices;

expansion of the transferring or distribution network of natural gas - increase in handling capacity of the existing transferring or distribution network of natural gas or the construction of new networks of natural gas or sites of the transferring or distribution network of natural gas performed by the operator of the transferring network or operator of distribution network for requirements satisfaction in natural gas of the physical persons and legal entities wishing to be connected to network of natural gas;

delivery - sale, including resale to consumers and/or to the places of consumption which are in property of the supplier, the purchased natural gas, including LNG;

the supplier - physical person - the individual entrepreneur or the legal entity having the license for supply of natural gas;

the guaranteeing supplier - the supplier appointed for supply of natural gas to final consumers on the special conditions established including by means of obligations on public servicing;

the compressed natural gas for vehicles (SPGT) - the natural gas which is saved up in cylinders by compression up to the pressure more than 20 MPas for its use in fuel quality for vehicles with internal combustion engines;

the liquefied natural gas (LNG) - natural gas which as a result of specific processes is brought to liquid state and is stored in special cylinders;

the LNG installation - the terminal which is used for liquefaction of natural gas or import, shipment or regasification of LNG and includes the system services and temporary storage warehouses necessary for process of regasification and subsequent delivery in the transferring network, but does not turn on the parts of the LNG terminals used for storage;

installation on production – complex of the equipment and the gas pipes of the producer necessary for natural gas production as natural mineral or for production of natural gas in the artificial way with reduction of parameters of natural gas to compliance with the normative requirements provided for supply of natural gas to network;

installation for connection – gas installation by means of which communication between network of natural gas and installation of the consumer, installation on production, gas storage or the LNG installation is performed;

installation of the consumer – complex of gas installations of the final consumer, held for use natural gas;

the intersystem gas pipeline - the transferring gas pipeline which crosses or covers border between two countries for the only purpose to connect the national transferring systems of these countries;

the gas company - person performing one of the following types of activity: production, storage, transfer, distribution, supply of natural gas, including LNG, and performing commercial, technical functions and/or service functions in connection with the specified types of activity;

horizontally integrated company - the company performing at least one of the following types of activity: production, storage, transfer, distribution or supply of natural gas and another, the activities which are not connected with the sector of natural gas;

vertically integrated company – the company or group of companies which can exercise mutual control or within which the same person or the same persons can exercise directly or indirectly control as it is determined by this law and which carry out at least one of deyatelnost on storage, transfer, distribution and at least one of deyatelnost on production or supply of natural gas, including LNG;

the related company - the affiliated commercial society, the companies belonging to one and those/same shareholders or commercial societies which, without being dependent from each other, are joint under single management or are controlled by the bodies consisting generally of the same persons;

management of efficiency of energy consumption/demand - global or integral approach for the purpose of influence on amount and handling capacity and planning of consumption of natural gas for decrease in consumption of natural gas and amounts of natural gas from peak sources by provision of priority to investments into actions for energy efficiency or into other measures, such as agreements of supply with natural gas with breaks, investments for increase in production capacities if they are the most effective and economic options taking into account the positive impact exerted by economical consumption of natural gas on the environment on safety of supply with natural gas, and also on the costs for distribution of natural gas connected with these measures;

obligations on public servicing - obligations of owners of licenses for activities in the sector of natural gas in common economic interests which can be related to safety, including safety of deliveries, to regularity, quality, rates and natural gas prices, and also to environmental protection, including to energy efficiency and protection of climate;

the operator of gas storage - physical person - the individual entrepreneur or the legal entity who is responsible for operation and servicing of gas storages;

the operator of the SPGT installation - physical person - the individual entrepreneur or the legal entity performing function of accumulating of natural gas in cylinders by compression up to the pressure more than 20 MPas and subsequent its sale;

the operator of the LNG installation - physical person - the individual entrepreneur or the legal entity performing function of liquefaction of natural gas or import, shipment and regasification of LNG and who is responsible for LNG installation operation;

the operator of distribution network - legal person owner of the license for distribution of natural gas who owns distribution networks of natural gas performs function of distribution of natural gas and is responsible for operation, servicing and development of distribution networks of natural gas in certain zones and when it is pertinent, to intersystem communication with other networks of natural gas, and also for providing long-term capability of distribution network of natural gas to meet reasonable demand for distribution of natural gas;

the operator of the transferring network - legal person owner of the license for transfer of natural gas who owns the transferring networks of natural gas performs functions of transfer of natural gas and is responsible for operation, servicing, development of the transferring networks of natural gas in certain zones and when it is pertinent, to intersystem communication with other networks of natural gas, and also for providing long-term capability of the transferring network of natural gas to meet reasonable demand for transfer of natural gas;

the natural gas market - the organized sphere of purchase and sale of natural gas by participants of the market and provision of system services for the purpose of regular and reliable supply of consumers natural gas within system of natural gas;

long-term planning - planning on long-term basis of necessary investments into production capacities and capacities on storage, in the transferring and distribution networks of natural gas for the purpose of satisfaction of system demand for natural gas, diversifications of sources and ensuring supply of natural gas to consumers;

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