The Government will announce in near future an international tender to commission petroleum geology works on the territory of Moldova. For now, it was decided to create a tender committee, which will have the mission to set the terms and requirements for the bidders. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resource is tasked with the organisation of the international tender, as well as with the conclusion of the grant contract with the winning bidder. The possibility of exploring and mining oil fields and natural gas deposits on the territory of Moldova was the topic of a discussion between Vladimir Voronin and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev at the informal CIS summit in July 2006. The two presidents discussed about the fact that the experts from Azerbaijan could participate as consultants at the first stage of the aforementioned project. Previously, Vasile Tarlev said that Moldova seeks alternative energy resources, but “until we‘ll then, we’ll have to agree with the prices imposed by “Gazprom”. Tarlev mentioned that the current efforts of the Government aim at creating local enterprises to drill crude oil and operative data do not exclude the fact that natural gas could be found on the territory of Moldova too.