Moldovagaz, a company majority-owned by Gazprom, acknowledges the historical debt of $709 million to Gazprom. This was stated by Vadim Ceban, the acting chairman of the board of Moldovagaz, in an interview with the Moldovan television channel TV8.
“We now have all the documents and comparison reports that confirm the historical debt of Moldovagaz to Gazprom at the right bank of the Dniester of $709 million. This debt is in the books, no one has annulled it. The documents will be signed” he emphasized.
Ceban noted that Gazprom has the full commercial right to demand the repayment of this debt, as it possesses a Moscow Arbitration Court ruling on the general debt of Moldovagaz.
“We have no debts to Gazprom in terms of ongoing payments, but an unclarified historical debt that covers the 1990s and 2000s, as well as a part of the period from 2010 to 2014” he said.
During that time, the current President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, and Prime Minister Dorin Recean, who now claim that there are no debts to Gazprom, were ministers in the government. Ceban acknowledged that the debts were much higher and that the majority of them concerned the debts of the Transnistrian region, namely the company Tiraspoltransgaz. He pointed out that Gazprom had proposed to the Moldovan government to regulate the debt issue:
“I have seen various speculations, but Gazprom has not demanded the payment of the debt. It was proposed to reach an agreement on the debt settlement – a payment moratorium and so on” he said.
Further, Ceban explained that the supervisory board of Moldovagaz did not approve the results of an independent debt audit, conducted by two foreign companies at the initiative of the Moldovan government. According to the audit, the debt to Gazprom was only $8.6 million. In fact, the Moldovan government owes Gazprom nothing and is not responsible for the debts of Moldovagaz. Neither is Gazprom, as a shareholder, responsible for the debts of Moldovagaz, Ceban said:
“No shareholder is responsible. That’s the general rule for all. Therefore, the question of debt settlement and the overall indebtedness should be solved on the enterprise level or between the creditor and the debtor – Gazprom and Moldovagaz. Gazprom is in a conflict of interest, as it is both a shareholder and can exert influence on certain decisions.”
Moreover, Ceban stated that the Republic of Moldova has not accumulated any debts to Gazprom for gas consumption on the right bank of the Dniester since 2016. In his opinion, the question of the historical debt should be solved in a different context:
“In my opinion, the debt question should be put on the backburner to maintain the status quo and focus on gas deliveries to the Transnistrian region. It does not make sense to link the resumption of gas deliveries to Transnistria with the regulation of the historical debt” he said.
He also commented on the talks between the authorities of Tiraspol in Moscow on the resumption of gas deliveries to Transnistria, emphasizing that these talks took place without the involvement of Moldovagaz:
“I do not know what Vadim Krasnoselski, the President of Transnistria, says. We are in constant contact with the colleagues from Gazprom. We have no information that gas deliveries will be resumed soon” he said.
Background is that Gazprom reduced the gas deliveries to Moldova to zero on January 1, after the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine was stopped due to Moldova’s regular failure to meet its payment obligations under the existing contract, which is a significant breach of the contract.
The company links the gas deliveries to Transnistria to the recognition of the historical debt by Moldova, which Gazprom estimates at $709 million. Chișinău does not recognize this debt and refers to the results of an international audit, which is not recognized by Gazprom. Since December 4, 2022, the entire gas, around 5.7 million cubic meters per day, that the company delivered under the contract with Moldovagaz, has been redirected to Transnistria.