The debt of "Moldovagaz" to "Gazprom" continues to grow and set new record highs, and at the end of the first quarter of 2021 it exceeded 526 billion 246 million rubles ($ 6.95 billion).
According to the financial statements published by Gazprom for the 1st quarter of 2021, accounts receivable from Moldovagaz amounted to RUB 0 million as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, net of an estimated allowance for expected credit losses in the amount of RUB 526 billion 246 million and 508 billion 624 million rubles as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, respectively. Considering that the official exchange rate of the Russian ruble to the US dollar, set by the Central Bank of Russia, as of March 31, 2021, amounted to 75.7023 rubles for $ 1, and as of December 31, 2020 - 73.8757 rubles for $ 1, then in dollar terms the reserve for expected credit losses (the total debt of Moldovagaz to Gazprom, which is largely due to the non-payments of the Transnistrian region for the Russian gas consumed), amounted at the end of the 1st quarter of 2021 to about $ 6 billion 951,5 million, and at the end of 2020 - $ 6 billion 884.9 million. Expected credit losses are a probability weighted estimate of credit losses (ie the present value of all expected cash shortfalls) for the entire expected life of the financial instrument. A cash shortfall is the difference between the cash flows owed to an entity under the contract and the cash flows that the entity expects to receive. Because expected credit losses take into account the amount and timing of payments, a credit loss occurs even if the entity expects to receive the full amount in full, but later than the contractual agreement. As InfoMarket reported earlier, the debt of Moldovagaz "to Gazprom" is largely due to the huge debt of the Transnistrian region. The debt for gas from the left bank of the Dniester is registered to LLC Tiraspoltransgaz. Tiraspoltransgaz has a debt for gas in the amount of over $ 5 billion, but these decisions of the Moldovan courts cannot be enforced on the territory of Transnistria. The shareholders of Moldovagaz have a draft agreement proposing a solution to the debt problem, but this issue cannot be resolved in the absence of a plenipotentiary government in Moldova, which should directly discuss the procedure for repayment and settlement of the debt. Gazprom annually applies to the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry with a claim to recover debt from Moldovagaz for natural gas supplied in a given year. The Russian gas holding as a whole has filed and won more than 10 lawsuits to recover historical debts from Moldovagaz for a total amount of over $ 7 billion, with about 95% of the debts coming from the Transnistrian region. Herewith, to date, Gazprom has not taken any action to enforce the court decisions on the collection of historical debts from Moldovagaz. The position of "Moldovagaz" on the claims of "Gazprom" is that these debts for gas were formed as a result of force majeure - the inability to influence the company "Tiraspoltransgaz", which operates on the territory of Transnistria. The actions of Gazprom, which annually go to court with claims to collect debt for gas from Moldovagaz, are conditioned by the requirements of the Russian currency and customs control authorities on the need to take legal measures to comply with the terms of repatriation of funds. The largest shareholders of the Moldovagaz company are Gazprom (50% of shares), the Moldovan government (35.33%) and the Transnistrian administration (13.44%), which transferred their shares to the trust of the Russian gas holding. // 04.06.2021 — InfoMarket
