Moldovan Government and “Gazprom” run joint business - Vasile Tarlev

Premier Vasile Tarlev says that “the Moldovan Government and Russian gas giant Gazprom are running a joint business, and this supposes cooperation”. Premier made this statement during his meeting with Deputy Chairman of the “Gazprom” Management Committee Valeri Golubev, who is on a visit to Chisinau. The aspects that aim at current cooperation in natural gas and perspectives of developing this cooperation have been debated during their meeting. In this context, he mentioned the opportunity of signing urgently a long-term frame-agreement. The parties agreed that during the next week the project of the Agreement on natural gas delivery will be finalized. It is to be signed by the end of this year. In parallel, the fields of investment cooperation will be put in a concrete form. First Deputy Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii met chairman of the administration Council of the Russian gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miler, in Moscow on December 7. Then, they brought up for discussion the conditions for delivering natural gas to Moldova in 2007 and debts for the previous gas supplies, which at moment is set at about USD 1.4 bln, including penalties. Moldovan authorities has been carrying on talks regarding the signing of the 5-year-gas delivery contract for almost half a year, since July this year, when the natural has started being delivered to Moldova for 160 USD per 1 thousand cu m. The issue was also debated by the Presidents of the two states, mentioning that the relations in energy sphere between Moldova and Russia will be built on the basis of the principles of market economy, satisfying the interests of both parties. Moldovan side asserts it has worked out certain investment projects that will be proposed to Russian company “Gazprom” with a view to performing certain joint investments in developing the energy sector in Moldova, but did not give details about these projects to date.