Prime Ministered Natalia Gavrilița requested Parliament to declare a state of emergency for a period of 60 days. She said Moldovagaz cannot make all the payments to Gazprom, which announced that gas supplies will be halted if the overdue amounts are not paid by January 20. Therefore, energy security in the Republic of Moldova is under threat, IPN reports.

The official said such a situation is witnessed because Moldovagaz, of which Gazprom is a majority shareholder, failed to identify solutions to fully pay for the consumed gas on time. “Regrettably, Gazprom, instead of coming up with measures for the joint stock company it controls to be able to fulfill its contractual obligations to consumers and the supplier, threatens to leave the consumers without natural gas,” noted Natalia Gavrilița.

The previous years, Gazprom allowed Moldovagaz to accumulate negative deviations in winter and to pay the next months. Now that the gas prices are abnormally high, the company does not accept such practices even if the terms of the contract remained the same.

“The current situation is a result of the commercial relations between Moldovagaz and Gazprom. In accordance with the contract, Moldovagaz was to fully pay for the gas consumed in December by January 20. On January 14, this obligation was fulfilled. Furthermore, by January 20 Moldovagaz was to pay a 50% advance for January, of about US$63 million, but the company has only US$38 million now,” explained the Premier.

Natalia Gavrilița also said that Moldovagaz was unable to come to terms with Gazprom to defer the payments and could not raise a loan to cover this difference.

Under the draft decision, during the state of emergency the Commission for Exceptional Situations, as the responsible administrative authority, will issue ordinances that will be binding on the managers of the central and local public authorities, business entities, public institutions, citizens and other persons who are on Moldova’s territory.