The Hungarian companies MOL and MVM can be used to overcome the energy crisis in Transnistria, Kommersant reported.
"Moldovagaz" is negotiating with companies from Hungary for possible purchases of gas for Transnistria. We are talking about deliveries by the end of March - beginning of April, while the probable routes and price of deliveries have not yet been announced.
According to Vitaly Ermakov from the Higher School of Economics, neither MOL nor anyone else has free quantities of fuel - gas for Transnistria will have to be purchased additionally at a high price. In addition, the throughput capacity of the Iasi – Chisinau is insufficient to completely replace Russian gas - it is only enough to provide a minimum amount of gas to Transnistria in the winter and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.
"From an economic point of view, this is irrational, but the political logic here is to postpone the financial collapse by all means“, he explained.
Gas supplies to Transnistria were stopped on January 1 after the expiration of Gazprom's contract for gas transit through Ukraine.
Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebryan warned that the energy crisis in Transnistria threatens to turn into an energy catastrophe. Within 10-15 days, the region will run out of gas and coal reserves for electricity generation. “The situation is changing rapidly“, — he noted.
The head of the region, Vadim Krasnoselsky, said on January 24 that gas reserves in Transnistria will be completely exhausted in two days and the situation in the unrecognized republic will become even worse. According to him, even now, in winter conditions, it is ten degrees Celsius in some apartments. Considering that the steam heating in Transnistria is gasified, life in such conditions will become impossible. At the same time, Krasnoselsky is confident that gas can be delivered to the republic tomorrow, but Moldova will not let it in.