Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy studies, and Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Baltnews on the current situation with gas supplies to Moldova and Transnistria.
However, the difficulty for gas supplies to Moldova this winter lies not only in the technical component. There is also such a factor as motivation, Alexey Belogoryev explained:"It is unclear what the authorities were counting on. Well, they will introduce an emergency mode, but where can I get gas? Chisinau, apparently, hoped that the EU and Russia would sort out the issue of Ukrainian gas transit. Alas, January 1, 2025, is already on the nose, and this has not happened yet. Austria, judging by its actions, is no longer counting on gas from the Ukrainian pipe. The Moldovan authorities are now standing at a broken trough," Alexey Gromov believes.
"The gas pumping capacity from Romania to Moldova is about 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. ENTSOG however, claims about 2 billion, but such a volume has never been pumped through a pipeline in practice."
"In any case, Moldova's annual consumption is 2.8–3 billion cubic meters per year. In reality, it would be possible to pump, say, 1.5 billion from Romania, but this will not completely cover the demand in Moldova. But more importantly, Romania currently does not have free volumes of gas," he said.
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