Moldovan president says there is contract between Moldovagaz stock company and Gazprom giant, which can be further observed

Chisinau, 19 December /MOLDPRES/ - No matter the fate of the contract between Ukraine and Russia, there is a contract between the Moldovagaz stock company and the Gazprom giant, which can be further observed and enforced. The natural gas can be bought on market and it can be delivered to the left bank of Dniester; the major problem is the capacity of payment of the people on the left bank of Dniester; yet, solutions will be found here too. President Maia Sandu today made statements to this effect at a news conference.  

The official stressed that there is a contract between the Moldovagaz stock company and the Gazprom giant, which sees the delivery of natural gas to the left bank of Dniester, no matter the transit way.  

„There are ways beyond the transit through Ukraine; yet, it seems that there is no responsibility on behalf of Gazprom to fulfill the contractual obligation and to deliver this gas to the left bank. We know that Gazprom has not been fulfilling its contractual obligations with the right bank of Dniester for some time. The things were simpler here, as the governance had managed to identify alternative additional sources.  In the case of the left bank, if Gazprom does not fulfill this contractual obligation, then the government will have to take other measures. No matter the fate of the contract between Ukraine and Russia, there is a contract which can be observed in continuation and fulfilled between the Moldovagaz stock company and Gazprom. Just as Mr. Prime Minister said, the natural gas can be purchased on market and can be delivered to the left bank. The major problem is the capacity of payment of those on left bank; yet, solutions will be found here too. Nevertheless, people must save more and cut the consumption. The government will come up with solutions on the how the left bank will pay for the gas which the institutions on the right bank of Dniester will buy for the consumption on the left bank,’’ Maia Sandu said.     

The president noted that the present situation had emerged because of Russia, which had been backing this illegitimate regime for decades.

„This illegitimate regime has brought our fellow countrymen on the left bank of Dniester to the situation not to be able to pay the real price – the market price for the energy resources. They are our citizens and in this situation, generated not by Moldova, but by the Kremlin, the government will help. Nevertheless, the left bank of Dniester must pay for this consumption.  

Our main task is to make sure that all people have electricity, heating and natural gas. Subsequently, just the prime minister said, we will come up with concrete answers on how the resources paid by the right bank for the consumption on the left bank can be recovered. There are certain ways and they will be made public by the government,’’ Maia Sandu said.   

Starting from 1 January, Russia will not deliver natural gas to Ukraine and the Russian gas will not reach Moldova either, although Gazprom is obliged to deliver natural gas to the country. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on 16 December said that Ukraine was willing to work on an agreement due to allow the transit of gas across its territory to the Western Europe, but ruled out any extension of the current agreement with Russia.   

Ass of 16 December 2024, emergency state was established on the whole territory of Moldova for a period of 60 days, because of potential risks of insufficiency of energy resources.