There are risks that Gazprom will cancel the contract for gas supplies to Moldova from May 1, but the country will not be left without gas and will buy it on the market from alternative suppliers - Andrei Spinu.
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development made this statement while speaking on a TV channel. According to him, Gazprom may annul the contract on gas supplies to Moldova because of failure to settle the gas debt of consumers on the right bank of the Nistru river by May 1, which is a consequence of the fact that because of the war in Ukraine, disruption of air links and other factors, the international tender for the auditing of this debt has failed and the audit cannot be done in the agreed time frame. Andrei Spinu said he had sent a letter to Alexey Miller, the head of Gazprom, asking him to clarify whether Russian gas supplies to Moldova would continue after May 1 in this situation. But so far there has been no answer. Deputy Prime Minister stressed that it is impossible to predict how the situation will develop, but since Gazprom has earlier displayed an unfriendly attitude towards the Moldovan side and threatened to stop gas supplies in case the advance payments are not made on time, it is not ruled out that gas supplies from Russia may actually be stopped as of May 1. In this situation, the Moldovan authorities will seek the best alternative solutions. Andrei Spinu noted that there are already many different proposals for supplies, but the question is about the price. "We have a plan B in case gas supplies from Russia stop, we are looking for the most profitable alternative. There are a lot of proposals, but we want to get an official answer from Gazprom to understand what to do next. If the contract with Gazprom is terminated, we will buy gas in the market, like we did last autumn. The prices are higher there, but we can't influence them. Everyone knows that the market price is high, but if we end up paying the market price for both electricity and gas, that will be the price of Moldova's true independence. We can no longer be in the grip of Russia; I hope that our society has enough maturity to overcome this situation. It will be difficult, it will not be easy. But it has to be done. We have to overcome this situation. We will have to save more, reduce energy consumption, implement energy efficiency projects, and allocate more money from the budget for compensations. We will have to give up something to survive this energy crisis," said the Deputy Prime Minister. He admits that the time for changes has come, because Moldova is the only country in the region that is 100% dependent on Russia in the energy sector both on gas and electricity supplies. Andrei Spinu said Moldova is better prepared for a possible stoppage of gas supplies from Russia than before the last heating season, because gas consumption is going down drastically, measures are being taken to increase the country's energy security, etc. // 08.04.2022 – InfoMarket
