USD 170 for natural gas pays off the recognition of the Russian property over the Cuciurgan Power Plant – experts

The independent experts are concerned about the price of USD 170 for the natural gas supplied to Moldova by the Russian Concern “Gazprom” because it could be obtained through the recognition by the communist authorities of the Russian property over the Cuciurgan Power Plan, which means at least USD 100 mln. The economist Veaceslav Ionita said that a daughter-company of the RAO ES bought the Power Plant from Cuciurgan in 2004 at a price lower than USD 100 mln. “Moldova did not recognise this privatisation until now because there are legal provisions stipulating that any privatisation in Transnistria is illegal”, Ionita says. Also, the expert considers that besides this promise, the authorities from Chisinau will recognise Transnistria’s debts for natural gas to the total sum of USD 1.2 bln. President of Moldova has recently stated at a press conference that the increase in price by only; USD 10 is determined by the joint projects Moldova proposed to “Gazprom” and RAO ES. The concession Moldova makes in favour of Russia in the natural gas problem, is according to Ionta, the right to construct production facilities – Power plants in Moldova. “Russia dreams for a very long time to obtain the Balkan electric power market, but the transportation across distances longer than 1 thousand km is loss-making. That is why Moscow is interested in building production facilities in Moldova in order to transport the gas here and produce power for the Balkans”, the expert says. Earlier, the deputy prime minister Zinaida Grecianii has categorically rejected the possibility of ceding such companies in order to obtain a favourable contract. She emphasized that attracting Russian investments does not mean ceding the companies, and “Gazprom” has equal possibilities in what concerns participating in investment contests like the rest of the investors. At the meeting with Vladimir Voronin in late November, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the relations between Moldova and Russia in the energy field will be built on the market economy principles, satisfying in this way the interests of both countries. The deputy Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii stated, after the protocol of the joint Moldovan-Russian commission had been signed, that the price of natural gas delivered by “Gazprom” would increase gradually, so that in 2011 Moldova would pay the average European price. At the press conference regarding the signing of the protocol was announced that the new natural gas supply contract and the price for 2007 will be signed until December 28. Moldova imports Russian natural gas at the price of USD 160/ 1000 cu m starting July 1, compared with the price of USD 110 in the first quarter. The Government says that during the negotiation process of the new contract, it was managed to maintain the state patrimony, no goods were sold and the diminishing of state’s shares in the assets of the energy field of Moldova was not accepted.