BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 22. Moldova turns to Azerbaijan as an alternative supplier of gas, Andrei Spinu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development of the Republic of Moldova, said at the Romanian International Gas Conference, organized by the Romanian Oil and Gas Employers' Federation (FPPG), Trend reports.
“In the long term, we are trying to find alternative supplies with our partners, such as Azerbaijan, and Romania. However, we need to overcome this winter first. Moldova is quite small, thus our demand is small as well. For us, this is more about affordability, than security,” he said.
According to the deputy minister, what Moldova needs right now is solidarity. New mechanisms have to be developed to help such countries as Moldova, or Ukraine, to overcome the immediate crisis. The financial instruments could be presented
“Let me be very clear, Moldova is the first country to be hit by Gazprom’s supply cuts. In the case of Moldova, we do not have any resources. And when we are put in these circumstances, this hits the direct consumers, which are households and industries,” he said.
He noted, that the country has already been decreasing its gas consumption, thus, the gas use has decreased by almost 20 percent since the beginning of September.