The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has made an advance payment of 469 million lei to Moldovagaz on compensations for gas consumed by households, based on estimates for January and March. This was decided today by the Emergencies Commission.

Thanks to this and other measures, Moldovagaz said it was able to fully pay Gazprom for the gas supplied in the first half of January, transferring a final installment of $34.4 million for a total of $63 million. Failure to do so could have entailed a halt in supplies, Gazprom had warned.

Also today it was decided to give Moldovagaz a payment break until March 31 on 183 million lei worth of gas borrowed from the state company Energocom.

The Commission’s decisions are binding under a mandate offered today by Parliament, which instituted a formal state of emergency for 60 days in connection with the gas crisis.