Contract with Gazprom to be extended for three months

The contract for the supply of gas with Gazprom will be renewed for another three months, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “The presidential election campaign in Russia is over. New ministers will be soon named or old ones will be confirmed and we will start the negotiations. It will be three months of hard work,” Valeriu Lazar stated Thursday, adding the price of Russian gas for Moldova will not be increased in the second quarter. The Deputy Prime Minister also said that there are two problems that must be solved before signing the new agreement. “The signing by Moldova of the EU energy packages II and III aroused our Russian partners’ dissatisfaction, but we consider that a solution to this issue can be found. The settling of the debts for gas accumulated by the Transnistrian region is yet a more difficult problem. They exceeded US$2 million,” he stated. The old contract with Gazprom expired at the end of last year. At the start of 2012, the parties extended it for a period of three months.