Ukraine and Moldova Agree on New Route for Russian Gas Transit to Transnistria

This was announced by Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov in an interview with Bloomberg. In April, Ukraine’s gas grid operator refused to extend interconnector agreements that would allow Russian gas to transit through the main cross-border point of Sudzha next year. However, according to preliminary agreements, a new route to deliver Russian gas to unrecognized Transnistria is being considered, which will go through Turkey. According to the Moldovan-Ukrainian agreement, Gazprom could supply gas to Turkey and then via Bulgaria and Romania, but it still has to go through the Ukrainian pipeline. “The agreement comes at a time when energy traders are watching how the cessation of Russian gas supplies through Ukraine will affect Europe next winter. The authorization of deliveries to Transnistria may somehow encourage that Ukraine’s transit agreements with other countries are still possible,” the newspaper wrote. Bloomberg notes that after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Moldova gave up Russian gas, buying blue fuel exclusively on the European market. But Gazprom continues to supply gas to Transnistria, which provides Moldova with most of its electricity. According to Parlicov, it is still unknown who will bear the costs and whether Gazprom will pay the transit fee, whether it will refuse and stop supplying gas to Transnistria when the agreement ends. The electricity contract with Moldova is the biggest source of income for Transnistria. “We will not hinder this transit because we do not want to create a crisis in the region, especially since this crisis immediately becomes a problem for the whole of Moldova,” Parlicov claimed. He added that, at the same time, Moldova will not act as a state guarantor of any gas contract.