Transdniestrian authorities decide not to extend state of emergency in economy, announce stabilized gas supplies
CHISINAU. March 16 (Interfax) - The authorities of the unrecognized Transdniestrian Moldavan Republic (PMR) have not extended the state of economic emergency declared on December 15 of last year, the PMR government's press service said.
"We have achieved relative stabilization in the situation over the past two weeks in cooperation with natural gas suppliers and financial operators, resulting in heating being restored to educational institutions at 8:00 a.m. on March 10. The transportation sector has been provided with resources, and Moldavskaya GRES regional power station is once again operating on gas," according to the statement.
As noted, centralized heating, which was suspended on March 1, has not yet been restored to residential buildings. "However, given the projected cold snap and current gas supplies, the president has instructed the relevant agencies to restore heat to residential buildings starting mid-week. Further decisions will be made based on developments," according to the statement.
On March 5, Moldovan authorities said that gas supplies to Transdniestria had dropped to a critical level owing to the military conflict in the Middle East, which disrupted supply logistics and payments. "After March 3, natural gas supplies were sharply reduced, network pressure dropped to critical levels, and MoldGRES was switched to coal," the Transdniestrian government said in a statement.
Gas supplies were suspended to a number of large industrial enterprises, including the Moldovan Metallurgical Plant, the Rybnitsa Cement Plant, Tirotex, the Tiraspol Brick Factory, as well as Tiraspoltransgaz, Benderyteploenergo, and Metan-Auto, in addition to MoldGRES.
The Transdniestrian authorities at the end of February said that a strict gas conservation regime was being introduced in Transdniestria owing to disruptions in the supply chain managed by the Hungarian company MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG, with the participation of financial intermediary companies, including those registered in the United Arab Emirates. PMR leadership previously said that gas supplies to the region were occurring with the financial support of Russia.
Hungary's MET has supplied gas to Transdniestria via Moldovagaz and subsequently through Tiraspoltransgaz since February 2025 using technical and financial intermediaries. Moldovagaz provides gas transit from the border with Romania to Transdniestria.
In August 2025, the Moldovan energy regulator revoked Moldovagaz's license to supply gas to right-bank Moldova, but granted the company authority to supply gas to the left bank from September 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026. On March 4, the regulator extended this authority for another three months, until July 1 of this year.
The Transdniestrian authorities declared a state of emergency in the economy on December 15, 2025, and extended it until March 17 on February 10, 2026.
As reported, the republic's economic state of emergency was first declared on December 11, 2024, for a period of 30 days owing to the risk of interruption in Russian gas supplies. This occurred on January 1, 2025, owing to the impossibility of transit through Ukrainian territory and the unresolved financial relations between Moldovagaz and Gazprom . The state of emergency was subsequently extended five times and was only lifted on June 8 of last year.
