Moldova promises to pay for Russian gas on November 26

St.Petersburg, November 25 - Neftegaz.RU. Gazprom agreed to give Moldova an extra 2 days until November 26 to pay its gas bill, stepping back from a threat to cut gas exports to the Europe’s poorest country.
The original deadline for the payment, which covers Moldova’s gas consumption costs for last 2 months, was November 22.

Gazprom´s spokesperson Sergey Kupriyanov said:

• The government of Moldova turned to Gazprom with a request not to halt gas supplies starting today
• Moldova had promised to pay off the debt on Friday
• As an exception and a sign of goodwill and understanding the difficult situation the citizens of Moldova may find themselves in, Gazprom agreed to this request
• Contractual obligations must be honored

Moldova does not have any storage capacity and is completely reliant on Russian gas.
In October, after declaring a state of emergency, Moldova signed with Poland its 1^st purchase from a source other than Russia in the 30 years of history of Moldova as an independent country.

Under the new contract, Gazprom started pumping gas to Moldova on November 1, the country agreed to pay $450 per 1,000 m³ of gas.

Moldovagaz CEO Vadim Ceban confirmed that the company is working with the government on a mechanism to pay off the current debt to Gazprom through a loan of about $74 million.
Moldovan PM Natalia Gavrilita has sent a request to parliament to urgently consider amendments to the state budget law for 2021, in order to allocate funds for the supplies.

In 2020, Gazprom delivered 3.05 billion m³ of gas to Moldova.


Author: Elena Alifirova