Moldovan state to regain control over the assets for exploitation of natural gas and crude oil deposits in the south of the country.
This is stipulated by the draft law on granting the government the right to decide on the transfer of hydrocarbon deposits for geological exploration and/or geological development to an enterprise that ensures the state monopoly in the field of geological exploration, passed by the Parliament in two readings at once. According to the draft law, in deviation from the provisions of the Subsoil Code, the government may decide to transfer hydrocarbon deposits (natural gas field "Victorovca" (Cantemir district) and oil field "Valeni" (Cahul district) for the purposes of geological exploration and/or geological development to the enterprise ensuring the realization of the state monopoly in the field of geological exploration. Thus, the hydrocarbon fields ("Victorovca" and "Valeni") will return to the state ownership as a result of the termination of the right to use hydrocarbons by Redeco (USA, later absorbed by Valiexchimp). Property rights to buildings, structures, materials, movable and immovable property involved in the technological process of field development will be transferred to the management of the Public Property Agency. The right to develop underground deposits will be granted to the state enterprise Hydrogeological Expedition of Moldova (EHGeoM). At the same time, the geological and technical documentation on the exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, well passports, weekly reports on the exploitation of wells will be handed over by Valiexchimp to the Environment Ministry (Agency of Geology and Mineral Resources). Earlier, a parliamentary commission of inquiry analyzed the mining operations and environmental impact. Based on the findings, the commission recommended that the government take the natural resources on the state balance sheet and establish temporary state administration over their extraction. // 15.12.2023 - InfoMarket.
