#Moldova_Russia: The new audit by state authorities of Moldova of the Russia-controlled gas operator MoldovaGaz for 2011-2021 revealed a number of issues related to previously unknown debts and overvalued assets. Main takeaways: ⤵️
1) Debts: The revaluation of the company's assets in 2008 worth $325 million was accounted for as MoldovaGaz's share capital instead of being considered debts of the company to the Moldovan state. Now the government will seek to obtain this money; ⤵️
2) Assets: MoldovaGaz owns large parts of the distribution capacity, however it has legal rights to only 35% of the distribution networks. The rest was built with public money and is used by MoldovaGaz for free. According to the audit, the costs for using these distribution ⤵️
infrastructures would be around €50 million; 3) Unjustified investments. The audit highlights that MoldovaGaz had made unnecessary investments worth €40 million. Added to this is the construction of a new headquarters (worth another €27 million) for which documentation ⤵️
is missing; 4) Transnistria: Based on the audit, the ruling party asks to clarify the legal ownership of the shares belonging to the Transnistrian side (~13%) and used by Gazprom to obtain an absolute majority in the management of the company. ⤵️
The Moldovan ruling party submitted the audit to the General Prosecutor's Office and the anti-corruption agency, which have 2 months to take action. The money that the Moldovan side requests from MoldovaGaz (50% of the shares owned by Gazprom) reaches more than $400 million⤵️
which is more than half of the debts that Gazprom demands from the Moldovan authorities ($700 million). I envision a “war of debts” between Moldova and Gazprom with likely consequences for the energy security of Moldova, which is now much better prepare than in 2021-22.
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