The absence of progress in the negotiations on the contract for the supply of gas shows that Gazprom tries to give us a political lesson, stated the former director of the National Agency for Energy Regulation Victor Parlicov. According to him, Moscow wants political decision makers from Chisinau to become involved in the talks. Economic expert Veaceslav Ioniță considers that, depending on the success or failure of the negotiations between Chisinau and Moscow, the natural gas tariff for end users will rise by at least 30%, IPN reports.
Victor Parlicov noted there are reasonable suspicions that the current gas crisis faced by the Republic of Moldova was planned by Moscow with the involvement of decision makers from the left side of the Nistru. The Kuchurgan Power Station’s announcement concerning possible halts in the supply of electricity wasn’t accidental.
“This crisis was prepared by the Russian Federation and the Transnistrian region. The Kuchurgan Power Station purchased coal reserves and switched over to coal partially. But the coal needs to be paid, unlike the gas that is delivered there for almost nothing. It is an attempt to give a political lesson, to force the Moldovan authorities to move towards direct political discussions. Gazprom showed that it wants to discuss with the Premier or with the President,” Victor Parlicov started in the program “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
For his part, economic expert Veaceslav Ioniță said no matter what the end result of the talks between Chisinau and Moscow is, the consumers of the Republic of Moldova will not be able to avoid a rise in the natural gas tariff, which can be even doubled.
“The tariff will rise by 30% to 100%. We now have a tariff of 4.20 lei and it could be increased to 5.5-9 lei. In the worst case, the Government will have to cover half of the rise by way of compensation, up to a consumption of 100 m3 a month, which applies to the largest number of consumers. The annual financial effort will be then of 600 million lei that will need to be covered with state budget funds,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.
The contract for the supply of gas between MoldovaGaz and the Russian giant Gazprom expired on September 30 and was extended for a month. The price of gas for October was agreed at US$790 per 1,000 cubic meters. Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu said that in the negotiations with Gazprom, Chisinau insists on the prolongation of the old contract with the old tariff calculation formula.
