The greatest accomplishment for SA Moldovagaz this year is the reliable provision of all the 650,000 end-users with natural gas, the company’s president Alexandr Gusev has told the press. During the negotiations held with Gazprom, it was decided to extend the contract for the supply of natural gas to Moldova for next year.

“A meeting of the Supervisory Board will take place in Moscow on December 25. If the shareholders endorse the draft contract, we will sign it,” Alexandr Gusev said, quoted by IPN. According to him, there are no reasons for not extending the contract. As to the purchase price of gas in 2014, the president of Moldovagaz said he does not believe that there will be major changes.

Alexandr Gusev said that the negotiations with Gazprom on the signing of a new contract for the supply of gas, for a period of 3-5 years, must be intensified in 2014. “The old contract has been extended for several times and it’s better and safer when there is a medium-term agreement,” he stated.

In another development, the president of Moldovagaz said the Government’s project to merge the heat supplier Termocom and the thermoelectric plants CET-1 and CET-2 is good. “The management costs will be reduced, but the most important thing is that a method was found for solving the problem of these enterprises’ debts for gas. The loan that will be taken out from the World Bank in advantageous conditions will be also used to rehabilitate segments of networks,” he stated.

According to the data of Moldovagaz, Moldova’s debt for gas is US$5 billion, US$500 million of which represents the debts of the end-users from the left bank of the Nistru.