The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Moldovagaz SA, Vadim Ceban, has reacted after Energy Minister Victor Parlicov announced that the government has proposed to the Russian concern to pay $8.6 million of Moldovagaz’s alleged debt to Gazprom and write off about $700 million.

Vadim Ceban claims that Moldovagaz only received today, September 6, the results of the audit of Moldovagaz’s historical debts for the right bank of the Dniester to the Russian Gazprom concern and that Moldovagaz “cannot comment on the statements, conclusions and assessments” contained in the audit report for the time being.

At the same time, he rejects the accusations made by the Energy Minister and says that Moldovagaz has provided the Public Property Agency with “all the information requested”.

“(…) However, “Moldovagaz” SA is not the subject of this audit, as the subject of this audit is its financial and economic activity and historical debts to the external supplier. At the same time, during the audit, the company provided the Public Property Agency with all the requested information under conditions of confidentiality.

On the other hand, in accordance with the legislation in force, as well as with the agreements concluded in St. Petersburg in October 2021, enshrined in the Protocol, following negotiations on the regulation of problematic issues in the natural gas sector with the participation of the deputy prime minister, this audit report must be agreed in advance with the company’s governing bodies represented by the Board of Observers of Moldovagaz OJSC””, Vadim Ceban said in a post on his Telegram account.

The Moldovan government proposes to pay $8.6 million of Moldovagaz’s alleged debt to Gazprom and write off about $700 million. The announcement was made on Wednesday, September 6, by Energy Minister Victor Parlicov, who made public the results of Moldovagaz’s historical debt audit. The external auditors found that Gazprom was claiming a debt of USD 756 million (as of 31 December 2021), including alleged current debts, of which Gazprom was claiming USD 709 million as of 31 March 2022.

According to the official, the recognition of this alleged debt by Moldovagaz would mean that every household in our country, which is connected to natural gas, owes about USD 1000.

According to the audit, much of this alleged debt has not been confirmed or at least cannot be enforced. Thus, the alleged debt amounting to some USD 276 million is not documented.

“Another alleged debt, in the amount of about 400 million US dollars, is overdue, both under Moldovan and Russian Federation legislation, because arbitral decisions on these alleged amounts were rendered in the period 2008-2020 and cannot be enforced after a period of 3 years.

Moreover, an amount of USD 135 million was spent by Moldovagaz without being approved by ANRE. This amount includes: $32 million for the construction of the new headquarters in Pushkin Street; $46 million as gas losses in the network and $23 million as unapproved investments,” the minister said.

The authorities in Chisinau say they can make a number of financial claims against Gazprom, which has failed to pay about $160 million for gas transit through Moldova since 2007.