Gazprom may cut off gas to Moldova if contract not signed by December

CHISINAU, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Gazprom (GAZP.MM) will suspend gas exports to Moldova if it does not get payment for previous supplies and no contract for December is signed, the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian gas giant as saying on Saturday.

Moldova’s gas contract with Gazprom expired at the end of September, and the two have failed to agree on a new price and other details of a new deal since then. Moldova declared a state of emergency this week. read more

Moldova has balked at Gazprom’s price of $790 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.

Moldova owes Gazprom $709 million for previous gas supplies, Interfax quoted Gazprom as saying.

Gazprom has extended the expired contract for October, but will only be ready to extend it for November if Moldova pays for September-October supplies, it added.

Two Moldovan deputy prime ministers travelled to Moscow this week for talks with Gazprom.

“Gazprom’s price for gas for Moldova is not in the interests of our citizens,” Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu, who took part in the talks in Moscow, said on social media.

A source familiar with the talks previously told Reuters that Moldova had asked Gazprom to halve its price offer. A second source said Gazprom had offered a cut of 25%.

The emergency is a test for President Maia Sandu’s pro-Western administration, which has asked the European Union and neighbouring Ukraine for help to tide it over its negotiations with Moscow. read more