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Moldova and the European Union have worked out an emergency plan to help the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria mired in an energy crisis after the halt of Russian gas flows.
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Published Jan 27, 2025 • 2 minute read
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(Bloomberg) — Moldova and the European Union have worked out an emergency plan to help the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria mired in an energy crisis after the halt of Russian gas flows.
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“Our objective is to immediately end the humanitarian crisis” in Transnistria and “to provide additional assistance to all citizens of Moldova, to ensure the development and the resilience of the nation’s energy sector in the long term,” Prime Minister Dorin Recean said at the news conference in Chisinau.
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As the first step, Moldova is ready to supply Transnistria 3 million cubic meters of gas on credit to maintain pressure in the gas transportation system as restoring operations if pipelines are emptied of gas may take two to three months. Those volumes will be enough until the end of January, according to Recean.
The EU is ready to finance the next part of the emergency assistance to help the region through the early part of February. The European Commission offered a €30 million package for Moldova to buy gas for Transnistria from providers in Ukraine and the European market and restore electricity and heating in the enclave until Feb. 10. The package will also allow electricity supplies from the breakaway region to the rest of the country.
Transnistria, located on the left bank of the Dniester river took a major hit on Jan. 1, when Russian gas transit agreement via Ukraine expired. A supply contract between Moldova and Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC ends in September 2026 but talks about alternative routes have stalled due to a dispute over an alleged debt of $709 million from the nation, excluding Transnistria.
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With no gas, the pro-Russian enclave turned off central heating and hot water supplies to residential buildings and halted almost all industrial activity.
The EU expects a broader assistance package to be in place by the time the emergency solution ends on Feb. 10. On Monday, Recean said Hungary’s energy company Mol Nyrt has shown interest in supplying gas to Transnistria.
MOL declined to comment.
Over the last two years, Transnistria received all of the gas Moldova imported from Gazprom — about 2 billion cubic meters annually — for its own consumption and to generate electricity that it then supplied to the rest of the country. A power plant in Transnistria halted electricity supplies to Moldova, causing the nation to import it from Romania at higher prices and leading to increased costs.
—With assistance from Irina Vilcu, Ewa Krukowska and Veronika Gulyas.
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