Moldova can do what it wants with gas bought from Gazprom - president

CHISINAU. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Moldova can decide for itself where to store and how to use the gas it acquires from Russian gas giant Gazprom , Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on television channel TVR-Moldova on Thursday evening.

"The Russian gas purchased by Moldova is our property [...] While we are paying for the gas it is the property of Moldova and it is for us to decide when and how to use it and where to store," Sandu said.

Commenting on Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu's statement that Moldova might file a lawsuit against Gazprom for failing to meet contractual obligations, Sandu said that the Russian company "is not fulfilling the terms of the contract."

"It is obvious to me and the other citizens of Moldova that the company is not fulfilling its obligations set out in the contract. It is violating them. All other questions are for the minister," Sandu said.

Speaking about the contract with the breakaway Transnistria region, under which Moldova gives away all Russian gas in order to receive cheaper electricity, Sandu said that she would not comment on this, as she "also [has] a number of questions regarding this agreement."

Spinu said earlier that the Moldovan authorities might file a lawsuit against Gazprom because the company "is not fulfilling contractual obligations, having reduced the volume of gas supplies."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 7 ordered the Energy Ministry to look into the situation with Moldova building up gas reserves in Ukraine. "Moldova has its own big problems in the economic and social sphere. They don't have enough gas themselves," so it is "unclear why they, as they say, 'store' some of their, Moldovan gas, received from us, on Ukrainian territory," Putin said at a meeting of the Civil Society and Human Rights Council. This needs to be sorted out, he said, instructing the Energy Ministry to take a careful look at this.

Putin also said that there was a difficult situation in Transnistria, including with supplies of energy resources and Russia has been supplying gas to the region "virtually for free" for many years.

Virtual reverse gas flows from Moldova to Ukraine began in September, leading Gazprom to say that Russian gas intended for Moldova was "settling" in Ukraine. Moldova said this was being done so it could build up gas reserves for itself in Ukraine, since the country does not have its own underground gas storage facilities.

Moldovagaz CEO Vadim Ceban said earlier that the company has not violated its contract with Gazprom.

The system operators of Romania and Moldova, as well as Moldova and Ukraine have interconnection agreements, he said. "There are certain rules by which we operate, so I believe that there was no violation of the contract, at least on our part. The amount of gas that was sold on the wholesale market is surplus. We sold this amount to Energocom, which had the full legal right to store it where it wanted," Ceban said.

Gazprom on October 1 reduced daily gas supplies to Moldova by 30% to 5.7 million cubic meters from the required 8.06 mcm, citing technical problems due to restrictions on gas transit through Ukraine. Gazprom has confirmed that in December it will also only supply 5.07 mcm of gas per day to Moldova, which at the cold time of year is only 43.5% of the amount needed.

Moldova needs an estimated 11 mcm of gas per day in December, two thirds of which for Transnistria, which generates electricity at the Moldavskaya GRES power plant. In October, the plant supplied 67% of the electricity needed for the right bank of the Dniester River. Amid the gas shortage in November, state company Energocom and the power plant could not agree on electricity supplies to Moldovan territory on the right bank.

As a result, Moldavskaya GRES refused to supply electricity to the right bank of the river, and Moldovagaz reduced gas supplies by 40% to 2.3 mcm per day from 3.9 mcm. This enabled Moldova to save some of the gas in underground storage in Ukraine and Romania

It is now expected that Moldova will use some of this gas in December, while all gas received from Gazprom will go to Transnistria. This decision was made because on Saturday Moldova and Transnistria signed a contract on the terms of electricity supplies to the right bank of the Dniester in exchange for an increase in gas supplies to Transnistria.