OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2010. The volume of transit of the Russian natural gas through the territory of Moldova in 2009 amounted to 17 billion cubic meters instead of 22 billion cubic meters planned. This was informed by the chairman of the Board of SC Moldovagaz Alexander Gusev, noting that the decline in the transit of the Russian gas last year was due to the Russian-Ukrainian contradictions regarding transportation of the Russian gas through the territory of the Ukraine in early 2009, as well as the overall decrease in the gas supplies to the Balkan countries because of economic crisis.

It should be noted that the volume of transit of the Russian natural gas through the territory of Moldova in 2008 amounted to 23,4 billion cubic meters, decreasing by 5% compared to 2007. The transit of the Russian gas through the territory of Moldova is provided by the companies “Moldovatransgaz” and “Tiraspoltransgaz”.

Moldovan side receives USD 2,5 for the transit of 1 thousand cubic meters of the Russian gas over a distance of 100 km. SC “Moldovagaz” was founded in 1999; equity of the company totals 1.33 billion leis (USD 106 million).

The largest shareholders of SC “Moldovagaz” are Gazprom (6 million 664 thousand 540 shares, or 50%), the Moldovan government in the person of the Public Property Agency at the Ministry of Economy (4 million 708 thousand 876 shares, or 35.33%) and Transnistrian administration in the person of the Committee for Property Management of Transnistria (1 million 791 thousand 306 shares, or 13.44%).