Russian gas company Gazprom said Saturday it will no longer supply natural gas to Moldova in the new year, blaming the country's alleged debt.
Gazprom said that the country's gas company Moldovagaz “regularly fails to fulfill its payment obligations under the existing contract, which is a material breach of the terms.”
The Moldovan government has denied that Gazprom owes $790 million.
The announcement by Gazprom comes weeks after Ukraine said it would no longer allow Russian gas to transit through its territory after the current deal expires at the end of the year.
This forced the Moldovan government to impose a state of emergency, in effect for 60 days.
The former Soviet republic, sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas, which flows through pipelines located in Transnistria, a highly fractious region. -Russian in the east of the country.
The Transnistrian leadership in Tiraspol declared a state of emergency earlier this month in response to the halt in deliveries.
An additional problem for Moldova is that most of its electricity is generated by gas, via a power station in Transnistria, and a planned connection to the European grid via a high voltage line to Romania is not yet in place.
A smaller pipeline between Romania and Moldova runs under the Prut river which supplies 1 million cubic meters per day. Moldova also uses Romanian gas storage facilities as an emergency buffer.
