“The authorities have pulled off another scheme that citizens will have to pay for,” said Renato Usatii, chairman of Our Party, who announced a 266% increase in the natural gas transportation tariff – to a record 40 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. The politician said this on one of the TV channels, calling such a tariff the highest on the European continent.
“The new scheme is being implemented by our crooks in power together with the Romanian company Vestmoldtransgaz. In 2023, Vestmoldtransgaz received 1560 kilometers of gas pipeline from Moldovagaz. By that time, it already had its own 120 km of gas distribution networks within the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline worth about 70 million euros. Due to the fact that this Romanian company was not able to repay the 70 million euro loan, they, together with our yellow top (meaning the representatives of the ruling party PAS), invented a story – to transfer 1560 km to the company for management and to distribute the loan for all the networks,” Usatii said.
In 2022 the authorities leased 1,560 km of gas pipeline from Moldovagaz to the operator Vestmoldtransgaz. This was dictated by the need for Moldova to comply with the Third Energy Package, which requires the separation of natural gas distribution from its transportation. This decision was not easy for Moldova because Gazprom, which holds a 50% stake in Moldovagaz, did not agree that gas transportation was carried out by an independent operator and not by Molodvatransgaz, which is 100% owned by the Moldovagaz operator.
In addition, the Energy Ministry explained that the increase in gas transportation tariffs was caused, among other things, by the fact that previously part of the gas transportation costs was covered by the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Moldova. In the last three years, there has been practically no such transit.