Gazprom has not made capacity reservations for February on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline to transport gas to the Transnistrian region, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Moldova reported, quoted by IPN.
According to the ENTSO-G calendar, the tender contests for the reservation of monthly capacities for the following month are held every third Monday of the current month.
Capacity reservations can also be made daily, but these will involve higher costs.
The Ministry of Energy noted that it offered support to the administration of the Transnistrian region in the purchase of natural gas from European exchanges or the Romanian Commodities Exchange in Chisinau as early as December, anticipating the humanitarian crisis generated in the Transnistrian region by the cessation of natural gas supplies by Gazprom.
Last week, after returning from the Russian Federation, the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky announced that Russian gas supplies to the Transnistrian region will be resumed in the form of humanitarian aid. Subsequently, he accused the Moldovan authorities of preventing gas supplies to the region even if the President’s Office specified that Chisinau does not oppose and has never opposed the supply of gas to the left bank of the Nistru, under the existing legal conditions.
The Moldovan authorities proposed that Moldovagaz should purchase natural gas on the market and deliver it to the Transnistrian region. This is possible immediately, if Tiraspoltransgaz pays for this gas. Tiraspol agreed that the gas should be supplied by Moldovagaz to Tiraspoltransgaz, based on the legal provisions of the Republic of Moldova. It requested that the payment for natural gas, the purchase and transportation at the border with the Republic of Moldova be made by third-party companies. Tiraspoltransgaz is to pay Moldovagaz only for the transit through the country.
In this connection, the Bureau for Reintegration Policies said that the relevant institutions of the Republic of Moldova are analyzing this request, the entities and the compliance of the procedure with national and international legal rigors.
