The fact that Russia cannot supply the Transnistrian region with natural gas bypassing the right side of the Nistru is the weak point of the Kremlin. This situation can be used for the benefit of the Republic of Moldova in the negotiations with Gazprom, said energy experts according to whom the termination of the contract with the Russian gas company will mean depriving the breakaway republic of Transnistria of means of support, IPN reports.
Energy experts said an eventual ending of the contract for the supply of gas between Gazprom and Moldovagaz is not to Moscow’s advantage. The absence of Russian gas means the absence of sources of income for the Transnistrian region and the situation can be used by the Moldovan authorities as an instrument in the negotiations with Russia.
“The Kremlin needs to further supply natural gas to the Transnistrian region. The regime in Tiraspol, after receiving gas gratis, sells this at symbolic prices so as to be able to get at least some revenues. There are two big buyers – the Moldovan Thermoelectric Plant that produces energy and sells it outside the region at market prices and the Rybnitsa Steel Works that produces metal and sells it at market prices. The money earned this way gets into the budget of the separatist region. In 2019, 50% of the budget of the separatist region represented revenues from the resale of gas received on credit. Furthermore, the region’s population pays derisory prices for public utilities. The whole economy of the region survives owing to the fact that Gazprom offers them gas gratis. The fact that this gas is supplied based on the contract signed with Moldovagaz is the weak point of the Kremlin. If Chisinau terminates the contract, Transnistria will remain without gas. This is one of our instruments in the negotiations with Moscow,” energy expert Sergiu Tofilat stated in the program “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
According to experts, the war in Ukraine generates complete uncertainty in the political and economic relations between states and Moldova should therefore make natural gas reserves.
“We should store natural gas in Ukraine or Romania. Discussions are held with the EBRD for purchasing volumes of natural gas. It is hard to buy gas as the prices continue to be very high. There is a downward tendency on the spot market, but we see an accentuated rise in the price of the oil component from the formula. It is a very uncertain situation. Things can return to normality in only a year or a year and a half. Patterns to obtain natural gas at realistic prices can be secured only then,” said expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” Ion Muntean.
Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu said that based on the decision of the Commission for Exceptional Situations, Energocom managed to buy 24 million cubic meters of gas that is already the property of Energocom. In summer this volume is enough for a month, while in winter for a week only. The Moldovan authorities are having final discussions with the EBRD for raising a loan of 300 million for purchasing and storing natural gas.
