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TIRASPOL, February 1 Transnistria does not have enough Russian gas supplies, including for the operation of a number of enterprises, said the first deputy chairman of the government, the minister of economic development of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic Republic Sergey Obolonik.
“We note that the volumes that have developed over the past two years are insufficient to fully supply Pridnestrovie with natural gas in winter. The average daily volume is 5.7 million cubic meters, unfortunately, with lower temperatures, the need for thermal power enterprises to operate does not allow us to satisfy all needs,” Obolonik said.
He drew attention to the fact that a fairly large industrial complex operates in Pridnestrovie. According to him, in the unrecognized republic, natural gas is sent as a priority to meet the needs of the population and the operation of the heat and power system.
“At the moment, we are not able to satisfy such enterprises as the Rybnitsa cement plant and the brick factory in terms of requests for natural gas. The metallurgical plant operates at its minimum requirement in order to preserve the enterprise. In general, the situation is quite difficult. We need volumes of gas . We could produce, there is a demand for electricity, for the production of electricity from the Moldavian State District Power Plant more than we are unloading now,” Obolonik noted.
According to the contract, Gazprom supplies Moldova with 5.7 million cubic meters of natural gas monthly. Russian gas is sent to Transnistria in exchange for electricity, and Chisinau itself uses reserves.
In October 2021, the Moldovan authorities agreed with Gazprom to extend the contract for gas supplies to the republic, subject to an audit of Moldovagaz’s debt in 2022. Gazprom reported that it reserves the right to completely stop gas supplies to Moldova due to a gross violation of the deadlines for concluding an agreement to settle the historical debt of Moldovagaz. Since December last year, the Moldovagaz enterprise has been receiving gas from two sources — from the state enterprise Energocom and the Russian Gazprom.
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