The Moldovan government conducted an independent audit, which did not confirm the debt of the Moldovan gas transmission company to the Russian “Gazprom”. Chisinau is ready to pay just over 1 percent of the fictitious debt.
Moldova is offering Gazprom $8.6 million to end the country’s “historical gas debt” story. According to the Moldova edition of Newsmaker, this issue was discussed at a briefing held by the country’s government on September 6th.
According to Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlikov, most of the debt has not yet been approved, as evidenced by the conclusions of international auditors.
“The audit confirms that a large portion of the debt is either not fully documented or is not subject to performance. So a large part of the $709 million is unconfirmed or unlikely,” the minister said.
Also in the audit, it was recognized that Moldovagaz, as the parent company, has the right to file a financial claim against Gazprom, pay the gas transit fee and fulfill its obligations to supply gas to the Moldovan side.
“If you remember, last year Gazprom unfoundedly reduced the volume of deliveries to Moldova,” said Parlikov.
Therefore, the position of the Moldovan government is that Moldovagaz gas transport company will pay $ 8.6 million and all claims of Gazprom against this company should be dropped.
Speaking at the government meeting, Prime Minister Dorin Recean said, “Moldova will not pay debts that do not exist. We will not allow this debt to be borne on the shoulders of citizens. Moldova will not pay debts that do not exist.” said.
Let us remind you that according to the agreement, Moldovagaz and Gazprom must sign an agreement on the settlement of historical debts by May 1, 2022. At the same time, the Moldovan side had to carry out an independent audit of this debt, which was claimed to have reached $700 million. However, Moldova asked Gazprom to postpone this date, as the announcement of the audit firm selection competition coincided with the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and large audit firms refused to participate in the competition to avoid competition. They send their employees to Moldova.
Moldova signed contracts with companies from Norway and England on 11 August 2022 for the audit of Moldovagaz’s debts. The government has allocated 800,000 euros for this.
But Russia counts the losses of the Russian gas monopoly. As it is written FocusGazprom lost 40 percent of its revenue. However, the Russian company continues to threaten Ukraine with $5 billion in sanctions. Therefore, according to Energy Minister German Galushchenko, Ukraine will not renew its gas transit contract with Russia.
Source: Focus
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