„Gazprom” not interested in Moldova’s investment projects – expert

The Russian concern “Gazprom” is not interested in the investment projects proposed by the Republic of Moldova and intends to deliver natural gas at the price of 160 USD, declared for Info-Prim Neo the economic analyst, Veaceslav Ionita. At present “Gazprom” does not have sufficient capacities for depositing natural gas, and because of this fact it diminished by 30 % the deliveries in CIS. This is the reason why the Russians try to redirect the deliveries to western-European countries, at higher prices, in order to accumulate sufficient cash for investments in the infrastructure of natural gas depots, aiming in this way at increasing the export capacity, Ionita declared. “In order to ensure new export capacities, “Gazprom”, besides investments must ensure consume, so it must behave properly with the consumer, actions it does not undertake at present”, Ionita said. According to Ionita, the price of 160 USD for 1 thousand cubic meters is not appropriate for Moldova, because its economic condition can not be compared with the one of the Western Europe. Theoretically, Ionita said, a correct price would be of 110 USD, but the intention of some economic agents to use alternative energetic resources as coal, crude oil or others indicates that even this price is too high in the economic conditions of the Republic of Moldova. Ionita states that the decision on price increase of natural gas starting second half of 2006 could be postponed till September, and its proportions could be influenced by USA and EU, within the G8 summit which will take place on July 15-17 in Sankt-Petersburg and which could remind that it can not use natural gas as weapon. The expert states that, in case Russia will set a higher price, Moldova will find itself in a hard situation: the investments in infrastructure of the last 5 years, of about 1 billion lei, will not recover, because they are planned in the conditions of present natural gas deliveries. According to Ionita, the Government seeks solutions for diminishing the shock regarding the increase in price of natural gas, especially in rural localities, which use natural gas for heating, specifying that the increase of the price for natural gas will not generate significant price increases for power and thermal energy. According to him, the Government could redirect the financial resources, obtained of the transit of natural gas, from the present practice of compensating the price for Power Plants to compensating the tariff for population. At a press conference, held on Friday, Vasile Tarlev declared after the negotiations with “Gazprom” which took place on Thursday, June 22, that from July 1, Moldova will pay 160 USD for 1 thousand cubic meters of natural gases, in case the Russian concern will not accept the investment projects proposed by the Moldovan side. At present the Russian concern holds 50% + 1% of the shares of the JSC “Moldova-Gaz”.