CERTIFICATE ON SELLING VESTMOLDTRANSGAZ SIGNED IN CHISINAU

Moldovan Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Chiril Gaburici, representatives of the Moldovan Public Property Agency (PPA) Dorina Cebotarean and of the Romanian company EuroTransGaz Tudor Dutu and Cristian Rusu signed a certificate on completion of the procedure of purchase and sale of the state enterprise VestMoldTransGaz to the Romanian investor.

At the press conference after the Thursday’s signing ceremony in Chisinau, Gaburici said that by signing the document, the Romanian company confirms readiness to fulfill the liabilities on building the Ungheni-Chisinau natural gas pipeline by end-2020, as well as invest around 90 million euros in this project.

“We have done one more step towards building this infrastructural project, which is aimed at improving the Moldova’s energy security. The Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline will allow the authorities implement one of its priority goals – to create a basis for the energy market”, he said.

The Minister of Economy of Romania Danut Andrusca said that the signing of this document is a historical step for Moldova and his country.

“The VestMoldTransGaz privatization is a strategic decision of the Moldovan Government. Moldova is ensuring the security of access to the Europe’s natural gas market, while Romania demonstrates a daring policy, once again stressing the successfulness of partnership between the two countries. Given the improvement of bilateral relations over the recent years, the cooperation between companies and governments has been deepened, especially in the field of attracting Romanian investments into Moldovan energy sector”, he said.

Before, Prime Minister Pavel Filip met with the Romanian Economy Minister and Director General of the Transgaz Romania Ion Sterian on the occasion of signing the certificate.

He thanked the Transgaz and Transgaz Romania representatives for their efforts, as well as assured that the Moldovan Government will provide all the necessary support for the soonest announcement of tenders and the starting of works on building the gas pipeline.

As Infotag has already reported, in early 2018, the Romanian gas transportation operator Transgaz bought the Moldovan operator VestMoldTransGaz as a single property complex, including the Moldovan section of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline. This was done by means of the Romanian company’s Moldovan daughter EuroTransGaz. The new owner paid 180 million lei and has to fulfill the condition of investing at least 93 million euros in extending the pipeline to Chisinau within the period of 2 years.

Before, Moldova and Romania built a 43-kilometer cross-border gas pipeline Iasi-Ungheni, commissioning it in 2014, but it has not become functional so far. This project’s goal was to exclude Moldova’s dependence on a single gas source – the Russian Gazprom. The sum invested in the pipeline is 26.5 million euros, 80% of which were covered by Romanian and European partners.

The next important stage of the project is the building of Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline in the territory of Moldova, as well as Onesti-Letcani and a compression station in the territory of Romania to pump the gas to Moldova.

The completion of the project will mean the unification of EU-member countries’ markets with the Eastern Partnership countries and ensuring the security of gas supplying to the region.

Initially, the project was planned to be fulfilled by the end of 2018. Then, after a contract with Transgaz was signed, it was said about the beginning of the building in June. In May, Prime Minister Pavel Filip stated about the readiness to take the building under personal control and declared the new terms of project launching – not later than September.

For building the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline, the the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank will allocate credits worth 41 million euros each, while the EU will provide a grant worth 10 million euros.