Tiraspol rejects EU's money, Hungarian company to supply gas to Transdniestria - Moldovan PM
CHISINAU. Feb 10 (Interfax) - The Hungarian MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG will be supplying gas to Transdniestria after February 10, paid by Dubai-based JNX General Trading, and will bring gas to the Moldovan border, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said.
"Both companies have been vetted. MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG is a European-market gas trader. No violations of national and international laws were found in operations of JNX General Trading. Not a single citizen of Moldova behind these companies has been found either," the state-run news agency Moldpress quoted Recean as saying.
MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG will supply gas to the Moldovan border under a contract with Moldovagaz. Tiraspol will pay in advance for the cost of gas transit from the Moldovan border to the region under an agreement between Moldovagaz and Tiraspoltransgas, he said.
The Moldovan authorities will not be blocking gas supply to Transdniestria, Recean said. "This is not an agreement between the Moldovan government and Russia, or other entities, this is a government permission given so that the population of the Transdniestrian region has gas and keeps warm," he said.
He said Tiraspol declined the EU offer to provide 60-million-euro assistance. "In the medium term, the EU offer of 60 million euros could be a solution to free the Transdniestrian region from blackmail and energy instability, but it was declined," Recean said.
"The main condition rejected by Tiraspol was a gradual increase of household tariffs. So, they will be unable to receive funding from the 60-million-euro European assistance package," he said.
Recean said after the meeting of the Commission for Emergency Situations on Monday the Moldovan authorities had made an exception from the law on natural gas to ensure gas supplies from Hungary to Transdniestria through Moldovagaz. "Under the law, Moldovagaz could only supply gas from Gazprom to the left bank. Now the company can sign contracts [with other suppliers]," he said.
The Hungarian company MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG can supply to Transdniestria up to three million cubic meters of gas a day, and "if the supply volume exceeds the established limit and if large enterprises of the region resume their work, the authorities will introduce a tax on such transactions," the prime minister said.
Recean also said the supply of Hungarian gas will begin on February 13. "The Commission for Emergency Situations has decided to allow gas transit from the border of the Republic of Moldova to the Transdniestrian region under a contract signed by Moldovagaz with a European trader, with prepayment. We have decided that Moldova can sell two million cubic meters to supply gas on February 11-12 and lend another three million cubic meters, which will need to be returned by March 31," he said.
As reported earlier, gas supply to Transdniestria resumed on February 1-10 at the expense of 20 million euros allotted by the European Union after Russia's Gazprom cut supplies to the region on January 1. Gazprom cited Ukraine's refusal to extend the transit agreement and the $709-million historical debt of Moldovagaz to Gazprom, unrecognized by the Moldovan authorities.
Leader of the unrecognized Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic Vadim Krasnoselsky said Transdniestria would purchase gas with a Russian loan after February 10.