CHIŞINĂU (Imedia) - Moldova, Belarus, Italy, Rwanda, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Lithuania, Sao Tome and Principe, and Jordan are at an "extreme risk" of vulnerability in terms of their short-term energy security, says Maplecroft's Energy Security Risk Index. Maplecroft evaluates corporate risks.  

The company's index included the quantity, diversity, and dependence of a country on imports of fossil fuels, imports of electricity, and the safety of imports in terms of conflict vulnerability, as well as the stability of the Government and of the business environment.

The ranking included 212 countries.

Commentary:

Ion Comendant: At least 98 percent of the country's internal energy consumption is covered by imports  

„Energy security is based on the viable provision of energy and fuel both in the short and long terms, at prices the economy can bear and while respecting the environment. From this standpoint, Moldova's energy security is far from fitting the necessities of an independent country," says Ion Comendant, a Ph.D. in technical sciences and an energy expert.

„Only suppliers of petrol products are diverse, especially after the construction of the Giurgiulesti terminal, but this phenomenon is barely noticeable in terms of natural gas and electricity.

At least 98 percent of the country's internal energy consumption is covered by imports, of which there is 70 percent of the necessary electricity. The weight of imported natural gas in the country's energy balance is over 50 percent and rising," Mr. Comendant adds.

He concludes that „energy and natural gas imports are coming from the East, go through Transnistria, and energy links with the West are insufficient to cover electricity demand if deliveries from the East are ceased."

Ion Preasca: A viable alternative to Gazprom will not exist earlier than 2015 or 2020 

„The authors of the index are right when they include Moldova in the category of states that are at high risk of energy security vulnerability," says energy expert Ion Preasca.

Mr. Preasca adds that „Moldova depends to a 99-percent degree on gas deliveries from Gazprom, and a viable alternative to this company's product will not exist earlier than 2015 or 2020."

The most realistic way of diversifying energy supplies and ensuring market competition is the country's integration into larger energy systems, Mr. Preasca adds.

He stresses that „considering the fact that our presence in the structures of the Commonwealth of Independent States, including their energy structures, recently did not allow us to avoid some energy crises and blackmail using energy weapons, we can conclude that the most reasonable path is integration into E.U. structures."

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The authors of Moldova's energy strategy until 2020, which was adopted in 2007, said that Moldova's biggest problems in this regard were "a lack of domestic energy resources (97 percent of energy needed is imported), excessive dependence on natural gas imported from one single supplier, a low level of use of renewable sources of energy, and the inability to generate adequate energy on the right shore of the Nistru." 

Nearly 70 percent of electricity was, until recently, imported from Ukraine. Currently, Chisinau imports from the Transnistrian-controlled Cuciurgan plant.

Moldova has five electricity distribution networks, three of which were bought in 2000 by Spanish company Union Fenosa.

In the last ten years, Chisinau announced at least five construction projects of electrical plants, but these never got off the ground. Two weeks ago, Moldovan-Romanian-British company MoldIteraEnergy said it planned to build a 450-mw plant in the village of Burlaceni (Cahul), which could be finalized in three years. In February 2009, Czech company J&T said it was willing to build a 400-mw megaplant based on coal in the free economic zone in Ungheni.

Experts have said that the two projects are vital for Moldova's energy security and that they will eliminate the country's dependence on the Tiraspol-controlled Cuciurgan plant.

Moldovan gas is imported entirely from Russia. The gas system is owned by Moldovan-Russian Moldovagaz, 50 percent of which belongs to Gazprom, 36.6 to Moldova, and 13.4 percent to the Transnistrian Committee of Property Administration. Until 2000, Chisinau built over 8,000 km of  various intensity gas networks worth about 100 million U.S. dollars, provided by the state. These networks are owned by the state.