Moldova bought a million cubic meters of natural gas from Poland on Monday in a trial purchase to diversify the country's energy supplies after talks with traditional supplier Russia failed to reach an agreement last week.
The pro-Western President Maia Sandu's government has declared a state of emergency after its gas contract with Gazprom expired at the end of September and the two sides have not agreed on a price or other details of a new long-term deal. Gazprom said it would suspend gas exports to Moldova if it did not receive payment for previous supplies and no contract for December has been signed, the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian gas giant as saying on Saturday. The Moldova government said "a contract was signed for a trial purchase of one million cubic meters of natural gas between the state-owned company Energocom and the Polish company PGNiG". "This is the first purchase of gas from alternative sources in the history of the Republic of Moldova," it said in a statement.
"A trial purchase is carried out to test the possibility of importing gas from alternative sources and to balance the low pressure in the natural gas supply system." The government will continue talks with Gazprom this week and ask for a "fair" price, Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu told a briefing earlier on Monday. Moldova has turned to the European Union and neighbouring Ukraine for help to tackle the energy supply crunch. Ukraine has accused Russia of using energy as a weapon against Europe, an accusation Russia strongly denies. Sandu, who favours closer ties with the European Union, defeated her pro-Russian predecessor, Igor Dodon, in a presidential election last year. The opposition blamed Sandu for the gas crisis, saying she should have gone to Moscow in person to negotiate a new deal. Sandu said the deal should be negotiated by companies and not the president.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: PGNiG