Moldova Pushes for Energy Independence from Russia

Moldova's parliament speaker Andrian Candu said on Tuesday evening that the country will soon start building the Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline section which will link Moldova to the European energy network via Romania "for sure".

The first section of the pipeline between Iasi in Romania and Ungheni in Moldova over the Prut river was inaugurated in August 2014.

"The government has informed me that the construction for the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline will begin now, in August, closer to National Day [which marks Moldova's independence from the Soviet Union]," Candu told national Radio Moldova.

The pipeline is meant to reduce Moldova's total dependence on natural gas deliveries from Russia's Gazprom and offer alternative energy sources in order to boost the energy security of the country.

Moldova will also gain a better position in negotiating future prices for gas and reduce Moscow's potential to exert pressure via its energy supplies.

In February 2018, Romania's state-owned energy company Transgaz bought Vestmoldovagaz, the company operating the Iasi-Ungheni pipeline in Moldova which will also be in charge of the planned Ungheni-Chisinau section.

Since then, the Moldovan government has prevaricated about launching procedures to start work on the next section of the pipeline, mainly for bureaucratic and political reasons, as parliamentary elections were set for November but then delayed to February 2019.

Gazprom meanwhile holds Chisinau responsible for more than $6 billion in debts accumulated by the Russian-supported separatist region of Transnistria - money that has been partially collected from consumers in the breakaway territory, whose authorities do not pass it on to the Russian gas company.

Chisinau's plans to...