OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2014. The contract on gas supply to Moldova by the Russian giant Gazprom will be extended. Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Andrian Candu and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Russian energy company Gazprom, Director-General of Gazprom's Export, Alexandr Medvedev reached an agreement to this effect at a meeting, in Moscow.

Candu added that the gas price also had been discussed too. „We believe and have economic arguments in this respect, that the price may be cut down by 3-5 dollars,” Andrian Candu said. At present, the purchase price of gas from Gazprom is of 374 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

Thus, the Moldovagaz’s and Economics Ministry’s specialists are to negotiate with Gazprom the signing of an agreement on prolonging the contracts. The agreement on gas supply conditions and, respectively, the one on conditions of gas transition via Moldova’s territory for 2007-2011, concluded between Gazprom and Moldovagaz, which expired on 31 December 2011, were consecutively prolonged next years.

The agreement in force was signed in December 2006 and provided for a gradual increase of the import price. As a result, the purchase price rose from an average of 76.1 dollars per 1,000 m3 in 2005 to about 400 dollars per 1,000 m3 of gas in 2013. Therefore, the tariffs also increased and the gas markets entered in 2007 on a descending trend. The gas import decreased from 1 billion 418.6 million cubic meters in 2005 down to 1 billion 31 million cubic meters in 2013, according to data by the National Agency for Energy Regulation.

Energy experts say that the ties between Ukraine and Gazprom should trouble us, as they might degenerate against background of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and lead to cease of gas supplies.