OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2012. The interdepartmental working group to make a road map to develop pools of hydrocarbons in Moldova. This resolution was adopted at the sitting headed by Vice-Premier-Minister Valeriu Lazar where matters on developing oil and gas pools on the territory of Moldova were discussed. The road map will determine the policy of the stat in this sphere, define time limits to hold international contests to concede the right for prospecting and mining of the pools.

Besides, the laws regulating this field are to be updated. According to the report made by the Academy of science, in 1945-1972 on the territory of Moldova there were over 700 wells at a depth of up to 3 km each. Traces of hydrocarbons were discovered but more substantial oil resources may be deposited deeper.

Today hydrocarbons are mined by the company, which has an exclusive right to mine deposits near the villages of Valeni and Victorovca. The company extracts 10 to 12 cubic meters of gas every month. As Valentin Bodisteanu, head of the company, has noted, if Valiexchimp is granted the right to hook up to the gas pipeline of Moldovagaz, the extraction will be increased to 200 thou, cubic meters of gas. Besides, the company extracts about 1 thou. of oil monthly, the oil is processed at the oil-refining plant in Comrat.

According to Valeriu Lazar, in the 50-ties of the last century, the gas extraction was not profitable in Moldova, since huge gas deposits were discovered in Siberia. “Today Moldova is very interested in the gas extraction on its territory, since we are importing more and more expensive energy, but do not know what deposits are hidden under our feed”, the vice-premier has said.

In addition to the natural gas extracted in the southern region of Moldova, another source of energy may become the offshore gas discovered by Ukrainian experts at the border between Moldova and Romania.