Moldova signed a contract with Poland for the supply of gas

Moldova has signed a contract for a trial purchase of one million cubic meters of gas from the Polish company PGNiG, reported press service of the government of the country.

“Today, October 25, 2021, a contract was signed for a trial purchase of one million m³ of natural gas between the state-owned company Energocom and the Polish company PGNiG,” the Cabinet’s website says.

They noted that Moldova bought fuel from an alternative source for the first time. This decision was made to assess the possibility of imports from other suppliers, as well as to balance the low pressure in the natural gas supply system. According to the government, this will not affect the tariff for consumers in any way.

Earlier, the media reported on the deal between Energocom and Naftogaz for the supply of up to 700 million m³ of gas.

Last week, the Moldovan parliament declared a state of emergency in the country over the energy situation. Back in early October, Moldovagaz reported that consumption in the republic exceeds supplies from Russia, and urged to save fuel.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the country has not yet concluded a long-term contract with Gazprom. On October 1, the Russian concern extended the contract signed back in 2008 for a month. According to it, the cost is formed depending on the world oil prices, that is, for Moldova they increased to $ 790 per thousand cubic meters, while in September the price was $ 550.

Another round of negotiations took place this week. How told a source of RIA Novosti, Gazprom offered a fair price with an additional discount of 25% in exchange for a debt of $ 700 million. However, the Moldovan delegation did not agree to these conditions and insisted on reducing the price twice below the market price, citing the lack of necessary funds , said the interlocutor. In addition, Chisinau does not recognize its historical debt to Russia, since it believes that it should not pay for gas supplies to residents of Transnistria, which it does not control.

Taking into account Transnistria, Moldova consumes on average 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The share of consumption of the right-bank part of Moldova is 1.1 billion cubic meters. The debt of Transnistria for natural gas has already exceeded $ 7 billion. Despite the payment for the gas consumed by industrial and household consumers, the regional authorities are accumulating this money in the so-called “gas account”. These funds cover the budget deficit of the self-proclaimed republic, the size of which reaches 45-50%.

The official representative of Gazprom, Sergei Kupriyanov, noted that the difficult situation with gas supplies to Moldova was due to the fault of the republican authorities, the debt was $ 433 million. debt.