Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu said that when Moldova’s delegation returns from St. Petersburg, there will be clarity as to the purchase price of natural gas. Immediately after the procurement figures are announced, a decision as to the categories of citizens whose bills will be covered by the state will be made. They are hopeful that the talks with Gazprom will end favorably as the Republic of Moldova is a bona fide consumer, IPN reports.

The Speaker said the decision to purchase natural gas form alternative sources was determined by the declining pressure in the pipeline network. The goal was to strengthen Moldova’s position in the negotiations with Gazprom and to increase pressure in pipes.

“We are purchasing very small quantities to maintain pressure in the system. We are making these purchases at will and out of necessity, but discussions are held in parallel with Gazprom. We are a bona fide consumer. If debts were accumulated, we will pay them. I refer to the debts that Gazprom said were accumulated by the right bank. But we want an audit to be conducted first and to see how these debts appeared,” Igor Grosu stated in the program “Shadow Cabinet” on JurnalTV channel.

The Speaker noted the price of the gas purchased now from the international market cannot be announced given the trade secret. The natural gas tariffs for household consumers will rise, but the rise will be estimated when the purchase price of gas agreed with Gazprom is announced.  

“We can only say that the price is close to the market one. When the state of emergency is suspended, we will return to this subject and will say how much we paid. It’s clear that the tariffs will rise as they rose all over Europe. Evidently, the state should intervene to help the people. Immediately after we have the purchase price negotiated and agreed, we will be able to calculate the compensations. But we need the procurement figures. We will have clarity in several days,” stated Grosu.

The state of emergency in the energy sector was declared for a 30-day period to simplify the procedure for procuring natural gas from the international market. The Commission on Emergencies allocated 1.7 billion lei from the state budget to Energocom to make natural gas purchases daily.