Moldova’s gas crisis was a warning to Europe of the risks of being too dependent on Russia’s Gazprom, the chief executive of Poland’s state-controlled gas group PGNiG has said.
Moldova declared a state of emergency last month after Gazprom cut supplies to the eastern European nation by a third following the expiry of a long-term contract and demanded Moldova pay more than double the previous price to keep gas flowing.
People briefed on negotiations told the Financial Times that Gazprom had pushed for political concessions from Moldova’s new pro-EU government in exchange for cheaper gas. Gazprom denied this and said that the talks were “exclusively on commercial terms”. The two sides signed a new long-term supply contract on Friday but a copy of the agreement seen by the FT suggests Moldova made geopolitical concessions.
Pawel Majewski, chief executive of PGNiG, said the episode should serve as a wake-up call to Europe, which gets 35 percent of its gas from Gazprom, and warned that Gazprom’s newly completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will carry gas from Russia to Germany and is awaiting approval from Berlin to start operating, would make Europe more vulnerable.
“This situation [in Moldova] is symbolic because it shows clearly what Europe, which is putting its gas infrastructure to a large extent in Russian hands, could have to face,” he told the FT.
“This is proof of what we have been saying for many months: that unfortunately the interests of the main gas supplier from the east are enforced hard. Gazprom is not a friend of the EU.”
Before Gazprom’s new deal with Moldova, PGNiG struck an agreement to provide almost 2m cubic metres of gas to the country, the first time that the former Soviet state wedged between Ukraine and Romania has received gas from a non-Russian source.
Majewski conceded that the deal was only a fraction of Moldova’s annual gas consumption of about Ibn cubic meters but indicated that PGNiG would be prepared to supply more if needed in the future. “We were ready to help and still will be available to do so should additional gas volumes be needed.”