How big the market is
On 30 June 2026, Moldova had 613 certified filling stations: 437 mixed, 139 with petrol and diesel only and 37 with LPG only. ANRE counted 216 petroleum product licences. In 2025 it issued 35 new licences, renewed 9 and withdrew 11.
In 2025, 1,004,714.42 tonnes of petroleum products were imported, 5.96% more than in 2024. Diesel made up 73.41% of imports. Wholesale trade grew by 9.0% and domestic consumption by 6.6%. Stocks at the end of the year covered 26 days of consumption for petrol, 13 for diesel and 22 for LPG.
What permits you need
Petrol, diesel and LPG are the only fuels that need a licence. It is issued by the National Agency for Energy Regulation for five years, in two versions: one for petrol and diesel and one for LPG. Each covers import, wholesale and sale at filling stations, and the fee is calculated separately for each activity. Kerosene, fuel oil, heating oil and lubricants are also petroleum products, but they are not on the list of licensed activities.
Besides the licence, stations and depots are registered with the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision as hazardous industrial facilities, and you notify the town hall and the National Agency for Public Health of each unit. Firewood, coal and pellets need only the two notifications.
The ANRE licence: who can get it and what you file
Only legal entities that hold a licence and are resident in Moldova may take part in the petroleum products market. Besides the documents required for any licence, you file a declaration on your own responsibility, on ANRE’s template, that the company is registered in Moldova and has the necessary financial capacity, together with documents showing that you have the technical means and qualified staff.
The main condition depends on the activity. An importer of petrol and diesel must show owned or leased storage of at least 1,000 m³, and an importer of LPG, at least 150 m³. A retailer must show a certified station that has already undergone an environmental impact assessment and has pumps connected to a fiscal cash register. The licence annex lists the tanks and the stations.
The application is filed online, through the public services portal. ANRE answers within 10 working days, and if it does not, the licence is deemed granted. You receive it within 3 working days of proof that the fee has been paid; if you do not pay within 30 days, the decision may be cancelled. You can apply to renew it no earlier than 30 days before it expires. When you buy or commission a new station or depot, you inform ANRE and the inspectorate within 10 days, and the licence is reissued with the new station in its annex.
The licence fee: per station
The fee is paid every year. For import and wholesale it is fixed: 3,250 lei for petrol and diesel and another 3,250 lei for LPG, however many depots you have. For retail, the fee is paid for each station and depends on where it is: 26,000 lei in municipalities, towns, district centres and along national roads, and 13,000 lei in villages and on other roads. An LPG station pays 13,000 lei wherever it is.
The station fee can be paid quarterly, in equal instalments, at the start of each quarter. The 50% reduction for companies registered within the past year does not apply to petroleum products. Reissuing the licence for a new address costs 10% of the fee, up to 585 lei. The licence may not be passed to another person: doing so is grounds for withdrawal.
Siting the station
A station may only be built on land that the local urban planning regulation designates for this use. It may not be built in the protection zones of rivers and drinking water sources, in resorts, in protected natural areas, near monuments, in green spaces and recreation areas, in the sanitary protection zone of social institutions, or on land prone to landslides or flooding. Every new station needs a geotechnical survey and a fire protection strip at least 10 metres wide.
Outside built-up areas, a station must be at least 250 metres from a railway and 1,000 metres from bridges, and it may not be built at road junctions. The sanitary protection zone of a liquid-fuel station with underground tanks is 25 metres from houses and social buildings and 15 metres from administrative and industrial buildings. For LPG stations with underground tanks, the distance from houses and social buildings is 20–60 metres, depending on the size of the building.
Industrial safety, metrology and the environment
Liquid-fuel stations and LPG stations are hazard class III industrial facilities; a multi-fuel station with tanks of more than 50 tonnes is class II. You register them with the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision in two steps: preliminary registration, through a notification filed together with the building permit, and final registration after acceptance of the works. Pressurised LPG tanks are notified separately, after commissioning. From commissioning, the operator must hold compulsory civil liability insurance.
Pumps and tanks are subject to legal metrological control. ANRE may shut down a station that lacks tank calibration tables, verified measuring instruments or a cash register connected to the pump. When petrol is unloaded, the vapour from the station’s tanks is returned to the tanker through a sealed pipe; the rule does not apply to stations with a petrol throughput of less than 100 m³ a year.
For the sanitary protection zone, the air at its boundary and at workplaces is tested at acceptance and then at least once every five years. The station’s toilet must be open to visitors at all times. A station may have a shop and vending machines, and it may be part of a complex with a repair shop, car wash and parking, described on the automotive: sales, service and parts page.
Rules at the pump: cash register, fuel cans, maximum price
All payments are made on the station’s premises, at the cash register connected to the pump, and the buyer receives a receipt. Customers pay in cash, by bank transfer, by card or with corporate fuel cards. The station displays the seller’s name, a copy of the licence, the opening hours and the prices, which must match those in the cash register. Attendants must be over 18 and trained. If you plan to close the station, you must give at least five days’ notice.
Petrol and diesel may be sold only at stations. Selling straight from a tanker or from fuel cans is banned, but since 25 May 2025 a station may dispense fuel into suitably marked metal or plastic fuel cans; LPG may not be dispensed into cans, and glass containers are banned. Container stations are allowed only at transport and agricultural companies.
Every working day, by 12:00, ANRE publishes the maximum price for standard COR 95 petrol and for diesel, valid from the next day. The formula is based on international quotations, the leu exchange rate, excise duty and a trade margin, which in the second half of 2026 is 4.30 lei per litre for petrol and 4.32 lei for diesel. The station may not charge more. The price of LPG is not capped.
Fuel quality and biofuels
Only petrol and diesel that meet the quality requirements in the regulation may be placed on the market, including a sulphur content of no more than 10 mg/kg and, for diesel, no more than 7% biodiesel. A station may buy only from holders of the import and wholesale licence and may accept fuel only with the batch inspection report or, for fuel from the European Union, the EU declaration of conformity. The station must let inspection bodies take samples, and the reports are kept for at least one year.
Every quarter, by the 15th of the following month, importers and retailers report to the ministry the quantities sold by grade and region. The station displays the amount of biofuel in the blend and reports to ANRE every quarter. The law requires importers to buy each year the minimum biofuel quotas set by ANRE, from local producers first.
Import and wholesale: depots, excise duty and invoices
Imported petroleum products are delivered only to the importer, which sells them to stations and wholesale buyers. The importer pays excise duty at customs: in 2026, 9,456.12 lei per tonne for petrol, 3,978.95 lei for diesel and 4,144 lei for LPG. Every batch is inspected by a recognised body at the importer’s expense. A station that buys duty-paid fuel does not need an excise certificate: that certificate concerns only manufacturing and processing.
Supplies of petrol and diesel within Moldova must be invoiced through e-Factura. Petrol and diesel carry 20% VAT, and LPG 8%. Fuel is carried in tankers authorised by the National Road Transport Agency, described on the road freight and passenger transport page, and a tanker may not be used as storage.
A petroleum depot is also registered with the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision as a hazardous industrial facility. From 1 November 2026, a wholesale depot needs an environmental agreement or a biodiversity assessment conclusion, and an existing depot, a state environmental review opinion.
Emergency stocks
Since 30 June 2026, Moldova has had a law on emergency stocks of petroleum products. The country must hold stocks equal to at least 90 days of net imports or 61 days of consumption, whichever is greater, and reach that level by 30 June 2034. Half are held by the central stockholding entity and half by obligated importers.
The ministry sets each importer’s quota by 31 March every year, for the first time in 2027. Importers build up to it gradually: 20% at first, 35% from July 2028, 50% from July 2029, 75% from July 2030 and the full quota from 1 July 2031. For now, the price before VAT includes a contribution of 0.48 lei per litre for petrol and diesel and 0.48 lei per kilogram for LPG. Stations that keep fuel only in their own tanks do not report monthly stock data.
Firewood, coal and pellets
Trading in firewood, coal, coke, charcoal or pellets needs no licence. A wholesale depot has code 46.71, the same as motor fuels, a shop has 47.78, and delivery to the customer’s home has 47.99. For each unit, you file the trade notification with the town hall, which costs 100 lei. A wholesale depot also notifies the National Agency for Public Health, because the list of activities subject to notification covers class 46.71 as a whole.
What changes in 2027
From 1 January 2027, the CAEM Rev. 2.1 classification applies. Filling stations keep code 47.30, which loses the words “in specialised stores”. Wholesale of fuels moves to 46.81, and code 46.71 takes on a different meaning: wholesale of motor vehicles.
Also in 2027, the ministry sets importers’ first emergency stock quotas, by 31 March.
How much it costs to open a filling station
The fixed part of the paperwork is the licence fee: 26,000 lei a year for a petrol and diesel station in a town or on a national road, 13,000 lei in a village and 13,000 lei for an LPG station. Import and wholesale add 3,250 lei a year for each licence. The trade notification costs 100 lei for each unit, and an SRL is registered with no minimum share capital.
The rest of the cost is the station itself: the land and construction, the geotechnical survey, metrologically verified measuring instruments, cash registers connected to the pumps and civil liability insurance. A filling station is a type of commercial unit, so it also pays the local tax on commercial units, which the local council sets by type of unit and floor area.
For petrol, diesel and LPG, the only option is an SRL or another legal entity. The law admits only legal entities resident in Moldova to the petroleum products market and bans individuals from import, wholesale and storage. A sole trader is not a legal entity, so it cannot get the licence. Below the threshold of 1.7 million lei in sales over 12 months, a company that is not a VAT payer may apply the 4% tax on income; above it you become a VAT payer and move to the general regime.
For firewood, coal and pellets there is no legal-entity requirement, but an SRL is still the usual form: only the company’s assets are at risk, not your personal ones, and a sole trader has no access to the 4% regime.
We choose the CAEM codes, draw up the articles of association, file the application with the Public Services Agency and open the bank account. On your behalf, we file the licence application with ANRE, the notification to the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision, the trade notification with the town hall and the notification to the National Agency for Public Health. For a foreign oil company that wants to import fuel or open stations in Moldova, we register a Moldovan SRL, because the licence is issued only to a legal entity resident in Moldova. We can take on the accounting from the first month, including VAT, e-Factura, excise duty and the local tax. What each service includes is set out on the corporate services page.
