“Moldovagaz” plans to resolve the issue with the debt to “Gazprom”

CHISINAU, Sep 19 – PRIME. The head of the Moldovagaz company, Vadim Cheban, held several meetings with the leadership of Gazprom, during which he discussed the need to sign an agreement to settle the historical debt for the supply of Russian fuel.

“He emphasized the company’s commitment to strict fulfillment of contractual obligations, as well as the need to sign an agreement on the settlement of the historical debt of JSC Moldovagaz to PJSC Gazprom,” he wrote in his telegram channel.

According to Cheban, the parties also touched upon the issue of gas supplies from Russia to Moldova and the work of Moldovagaz.

Gazprom and Moldovagaz held lengthy negotiations at the end of October 2021, as a result of which they decided to extend the gas contract for another five years, starting from November 1. Gazprom said that the deal was signed almost entirely on the terms of the Moldovan side, but with full and timely payment of current payments and an audit of Moldovagaz’s debt. After that, the republic several times experienced difficulties with the transfer of payments on time and asked for delays. The representative of “Gazprom” Sergey Kupriyanov expressed fears that in the future the crisis of non-payments could be repeated.

Since November last year, a state of emergency has been in effect in the energy sector in Moldova. In May, anti-government rallies swept the country. The protesters opposed the increase in gas and food prices, and were also indignant at rising inflation and falling living standards in the country.

In early August, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure of the Republic Andrei Spinu stated that Moldova would not ask Russia for cheap gas and would not make concessions to Moscow. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilitsa also refused to negotiate the price of gas.