Unwise decisions were taken and more gas than necessary was bought, said the deputy chairman of the Party of Change Sergiu Tofilat. According to the energy expert, Energocom knew how much the right side of the Nistru consumes in the winter season, but anyway purchased more gas at exorbitant prices. He expects that the free gas for the Transnistrian region will stop coming and preconditions for the country’s reintegration will appear as a result, IPN reports.
The expert said that even if Moldova didn’t honor its contractual obligations with Gazprom, Russia didn’t venture to fully stop the gas supplies, knowing that a humanitarian crisis will be triggered on the left side of the Nistru this way. The annulment of the harmful practice of providing free gas to the separatist region will create preconditions for Moldova’s reintegration.
“Putin realizes that if the gas is cut off, Moldova will not be affected as for over half a year we have bought gas from other suppliers. The Transnistrian region will be most seriously hit and a humanitarian crisis will be caused in the region. Putin does not want to assume responsibility for generating a humanitarian crisis in the region. Half of the budget of the Transnistrian region consists of revenues from the resale of this gas. But sooner or later this free gas will come to an end and Transnistria will anyway experience a humanitarian crisis and this opens up reintegration perspectives. They will not depend on Moscow and will have to return under the legal, constitutional wing of the Republic of Moldova,” Sergiu Tofilat stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
In the same connection, the expert said the authorities’ decision to buy such large volumes of gas when they knew how much gas is used in winter was unwise.
“Energocom purchased 600 million m3 of gas even if it knew that we needed only 480 million m3. The question is, who took such a decision and why was it necessary to buy more gas than needed? In December and in January, we purchased more gas than necessary at those high prices. When spring game, prices declined, but we could not decrease the gas charges as we had expensive gas in stock. Those decisions were unwise. They bought too much gas in winter,” noted Sergiu Tofilat.
Earlier, the head of Energocom Vadim Bînzari said that Moldova has yet about 100 million cubic meters of gas bought at high prices in stock. The gas charge for household users was recently decreased to over 18 lei per m3 of gas, down from almost 30 lei per m3.