Spinu on the Moldovagaz-Gazprom Contract: We Cannot Make It Public

Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Andrei Spinu claims that the contract for the transit and supply of natural gas between Moldovagaz and Gazprom, which was extended by one month, cannot be made public. According to the minister, the document contains a secrecy provision. Spinu also did not rule out that a new contract with Gazprom would be signed, zdg.md writes. In the air on ProTV, the Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development said that negotiations on a contract for the transit and supply of natural gas between Moldovagaz and the Russian giant Gazprom are “not simple at all”. “Unfortunately, there was a secrecy clause when the contract was signed. It will be interesting for me to see if we can remove this clause in the process of negotiating and signing a long-term contract. At this stage, we cannot make the agreement itself public, while it is an agreement concluded since 2006, and, unfortunately, it has such provisions. I have seen calculation formulas and annexes that were signed to renew the deal with Gazprom. The contract that I saw had no clauses regarding the Transdniestrian region. We are in a very difficult process of discussing this topic. This week we have also planned a trip to St. Petersburg to continue talks,” Spinu said. The Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development does not rule out signing a new contract with Gazprom. At the same time, he clarified that Chisinau owes about $ 450 million to the Russian energy company. “A deal can take place if we come to an agreement. Initially, in August, when we started negotiations, our position was to extend this contract. The contract did not expire because it was extended using the formula in the third quarter for October. We are trying to negotiate with Gazprom to resolve several issues that have accumulated in the relations between Moldovagaz and Gazprom. We are talking about the historical debts of the Republic of Moldova, about the historical debts on the right bank of the Dniester - about 450 million dollars. Another problem is the so-called energy package, which was supposed to end at the end of August, but it was extended several times,” Spinu said. Point