The audit showed that the debt of SA Moldovagaz to Russia’s Gazprom at the end of March 2022 was US$709 million. But the largest part of this debt is either non-executable or could not be confirmed by documents. The same audit revealed that Moldovagaz can also make financial claims against Gazprom. According to Minister of Energy Victor Parlicov, Chisinau suggests paying US$8.6 million in debt to Gazprom, IPN reports.
The minister told a news conference that the auditors asked Moldovagaz and Gazprom to provide documents that confirm the existence of debts, but these weren’t presented. It goes to debts unjustified by documents totaling US$276 million of the US$709 million.
“Both the Moldovan side and SA Moldovagaz have reasons, according to the audit results, to make financial claims against Gazprom. The audit report specifies several elements. The first element is the method of distributing the incomes from gas transit via the Republic of Moldova. The auditors say there are reasons to claim about US$160 million. The second element is the non-fulfillment by Gazprom last autumn and this winter of its obligations concerning the supplied amounts of gas. If you remember, in October 2022, Gazprom unilaterally limited, in beach of the contract, the amounts of gas supplied to the Republic of Moldova,” stated Victor Parlicov.
According to him, the audit referred also to “an older story” concerning the method of founding Moldovagaz, namely the way in which Moldova’s contribution with assets to this company was assessed and the size of the Moldovan Government’s share or the debt that was to be annulled by Gazprom. “This is not part of the debt subject, but the issue was also mentioned in the audit report,” noted the minister.
This way, it is proposed that SA Moldovagaz should pay US$8.6 million to clear the debt and solve the debt issue. The proposal was submitted to Gazprom. “We are waiting for a reaction as particular procedures are to follow. This report, its results are to be approved by the Supervisory Board of SA Moldovagaz. This is the position of the Government of the Republic of Moldova and is what we submitted as a proposal,” said Victor Parlicov.
He admitted that the audit results could be rejected at a time when Gazprom owns about 63% of the share capital of SA Moldovagaz, but noted that the audit serves as a basis for Moldova when it formulates a position on the debts invoked by the Russian company.
