Moldovan leadership has no contact with Gazprom - minister
CHISINAU. Sept 10 (Interfax) - Moldova's political leadership has no contact with Russia's Gazprom at present, and ongoing issues with the company are being discussed by Moldovagaz, Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov said on television on Tuesday.
"We are trying not to politicize gas and energy supply issues. As you know, all gas supplied by Gazprom under the contract with Moldovagaz is supplied to the Transdniestria region, as agreed by all parties," Parlicov said.
"There is currently no contact at the level of Moldova's political leadership with Gazprom," he said.
Parlicov said the historical debt that Gazprom insists on, as well as the results of the international audit of this debt, were not currently being discussed. "We performed an audit and presented the results in September 2023. We have not returned to this issue since. Gazprom has no time for this now, they have more important problems related to losses and gas supplies," he said.
Asked about the possibility of resuming gas purchases from Gazprom, he said Moldovagaz can buy gas from anyone following the lifting of the state of emergency in Moldova.
"It all depends on the gas price. We can buy it from Gazprom if that's the best price. I was even criticized when I talked about this in the spring. But now this is only theoretically possible. Gazprom has reduced gas supplies to 5.7 million cubic meters per day since the autumn of 2022. This is not enough even for the Transdniestria region during the cold period, not to mention supplies to the right bank of the Dniester [to Moldova itself]," Parlicov said.
He said the Energy Ministry would soon nominate four candidates for the Moldovagaz supervisory board, selected competitively. They include Vadim Ceban, chairman of the company's management board. Parlicov did not say who the government would nominate for a new term in that post.
The Moldovagaz charter states that four members of the board and the chairman of the management board are nominated by the Moldovan government and approved by the supervisory board, where Gazprom has the majority of votes.
Moldovagaz and Gazprom signed a five-year gas supply contract, which came into force on November 1, 2021. Daily gas supplies to Moldova were reduced by 30% from October 1, 2022, to 5.7 million cubic meters due, Gazprom said, to technical problems associated with restrictions on gas transit through Ukraine. Since then, Gazprom has been supplying the same 5.7 mcm per day or less than 40% of the volume needed during the cold months of the year. Moldova supplies all the gas to the Moldavskaya GRES or MGRES power plant in Transdniestria, which generates 80% of Moldova's electricity in return. The contract with MGRES is valid until the end of 2024.
Gas is supplied to Transdniestria via the Moldovan gas transmission system through the Sudzha gas metering station in Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region. Should any problems occur in the gas transmission system, Transdniestria may find itself without gas. The rest of Moldova is supplied with gas through Romania by the Iasi-Chisinau line. Moldova's state-run company Energocom has stored around 100 million cubic meters of gas, or more than 10% of annual gas consumption, in Ukraine and Romania.