Expert-Grup analytical centre says real access to natural gas market from Romania to enhance Moldova's energy security, to diminish geopolitical pressures

Chisinau, 14 June /MOLDPRES/ - The inter-connection with Romania in terms of natural gas represents a major priority for Moldova’s energy security. The completion of the segment of pipeline Iasi-Ungheni in 2014 confirmed that such an energy object is not only desirable, but also realizable. The finalization of the bureaucratic side for the construction of the Ungheni-Chisinau segment on 2 May 2019 allowed starting the construction itself, said experts of the Expert-Grup Independent Analytical Centre, Expert-Forum and Watchdog.md community at a today’s event on the unveiling of the report on the prospects of the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline before and after 2020.      

„The volatility of the regional context will not allow any break or postponing for political reasons and imposes quickness in finding solutions to technical obstacles, within the limits of the national legal framework,” an expert of the Expert-Grup Independent Analytical Centre, Denis Cenusa, said. The expert noted that “a priority is also to co-opt European resources available, in order to facilitate construction operations. In no case, the Romanian company should not receive an exclusivist treatment contrary to the Moldovan legislation in the public procurement field, environmental protection.”  

An energy expert from Expert-Forum, Ana Otilia Nutu, stressed the importance of the functionality, transparency and fair competition in the gas sector, following the completion of the infrastructure.  “Till the finalization of the project, needed regulations should be worked out for a real competition in the gas sector and full implementation of the Third Energy Package. Both for the entrance of Romanian and Ukrainian suppliers on the Moldovan gas market and for the use of the gas infrastructure from Ukraine (for instance, the storage capacities), it is essential to enforce, with no exceptions, the rules of the single European energy market in the region (Moldova, Ukraine and Romania),” the Romanian expert added.     

In the end of the event, the experts came up with a string of recommendations to the authorities, among which the creation of an online platform for monitoring the degrees of implementation of the construction of the gas pipeline in Romania and Moldova, speeding up the effective separation of the producers from provider and the configuring of a gas market for the completion of the secondary legal framework. As a priority, the authorities should fully enforce the principle of the Third Package and strengthen efforts in the relation with Ukraine for the prevention and management of eventual crisis in the energy sector.