CHISINAU, January 16. /TASS/. Moldova is integrating its gas and power supply systems with Romania in a move to increase transit for reducing the pressure on consumers, the republic’s Energy Minister Victor Parlicov said when commenting on a memorandum he signed with his Romanian colleague Sebastian Burduja.

"The more gas is transited via Moldovan territory the less is the pressure on the consumer in Moldova, the more we as a country benefit from gas transit," he said in an interview aired by the TVR Moldova television channel. The Romanian company Vestmoldtransgaz, which rents Moldova’s gas supply systems, "should offer the best way to develop the system on the republic’s territory to ensure a flexible possibility to deliver and take gas from Romania to Ukraine and the other way round," Parlicov stressed.

Moldova is experiencing an energy crisis due to rising prices for gas and electricity, which has provoked protests in the country. Moreover, Gazprom, which was previously the only gas supplier to the republic, reduced its daily supply by 30% from October 2022. The Russian company explained this by technical problems related to the restriction of transit through Ukraine, but Chisinau blamed the crisis on the Russian gas holding. Starting December 2022 right-bank Moldova had to switch fully to buying fuel from European suppliers. Russian gas in Transnistria is also used to generate electricity at the Moldavskaya regional power plant, the main buyer of which is Moldova.