CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2023) Most of the natural gas Moldova is buying in Europe for its winter reserves is imported from the United States, Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov said on Sunday.
"(State) enterprise Energocom has a contract with Greek state company DEPA. Most of the liquefied natural gas that is shipped to Greek ports is from the US. And I would not be surprised that it is this gas that we are importing to store so that to use it in the winter season. We store gas in Ukraine," Parlicov told Moldovan news agency Ziarul de Garda.
The minister stated that Energocom could also acquire gas from European companies that, in turn, could be produced in Russia.
Parlicov also said that Moldovagaz had fulfilled its obligations under the 2021 agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom, which made gas supplies to Moldova dependent on the audit of the Moldovagaz debt.
"The results of the audit as part of the agreement with Gazprom are ready, but they will be publicly announced only after we analyze them in detail. It is about the structure of the debt. Based on the results of the audit, we will make a decision as to how we will further resolve the issue with Gazprom," the minister added.
Since December, Moldova has been receiving gas from two sources - from Energocom and Gazprom. Russian gas is sent to Transnistria in exchange for electricity produced by the local power plant, while the rest of Moldova uses gas from accumulated reserves designed to contain over 200 million cubic meters.
Moldova is now experiencing an acute energy crisis due to rising energy prices and soaring inflation, with gas tariffs increasing almost seven-fold in 2022 and electricity tariffs almost four-fold. The government has introduced a series of austerity measures to deal with the situation.
