Moldova Region’s Industry Grinds to Halt on Lack of Russian Gas

(Bloomberg) -- Moldova’s pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transnistria halted almost all industrial activity except for food production, following the end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine, Interfax reported. 

“The government will do everything to help economic agents ship manufactured goods,” said Sergei Obolonik, self-proclaimed economy minister of Transnistria, according to the Russian news agency. “At the moment, the situation is manageable and predictable, but if the problem with gas supplies isn’t resolved, enterprises will lose their ability to restart.”

The region of about 350,000 people took a major hit after Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC halted gas flows via Ukraine on Jan. 1, when its five-year transit agreement ended with no alternative in place, despite months of political wrangling.

Obolonik said that, by Jan. 5, it will be clear how much energy households will need and what can be directed to industry, including Moldova Steel Works JSC and a number of other strategic companies, he added. 

All of Moldova’s roughly 2 billion cubic meters of annual gas imported from Gazprom in the past two years were being delivered to Transnistria. The breakaway region used the fuel for its own consumption and to generate electricity that it also supplied to the rest of the country.

Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Transnistria and said that the situation was deliberately induced by Russia to destabilize the entire country. 

“We treat this as a security crisis aimed at enabling the return of pro-Russian forces to power in Moldova and weaponising our territory against Ukraine, with whom we share a 1,200 km border,” Recean said in a statement on the government’s website.

On Jan. 1, local gas supplier Tiraspoltransgaz cut off deliveries of the fuel to residents, while Tirasteploenergo switched off heat and hot-water supplies, with the exception of hospitals and other social care establishments.

Moldova’s gas company Moldovagaz, together with state energy company Energocom, is ready to help Tiraspoltransgaz to buy the fuel on any European gas platform, Vadim Ceban, head of the company said on Thursday. 

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