Russia’s Gazprom group announced on Tuesday that it had cut off gas supplies to the Netherlands, following a military operation by Dutch energy company Terra Gaz in Ukraine and Denmark’s refusal to complete the ruble payment process with Poland, Bulgaria and Finland. Russia May … Russia will soon become the fifth country to cut off gas because of its refusal to pay the ruble.
“Gazprom has completely stopped supplying gas due to failure to pay in rubles (terra gas),” the Russian company said in a statement.
In an effort to circumvent Western sanctions imposed on its central bank in connection with the Ukraine war, Moscow has previously asked customers of “friendly countries” (including the European Union) to pay for gas in rubles. Gazprom announced that it had not received payments for the Dutch April gas supply until May 30, although Terra told Case that gas supplies supplied from April 1 should be paid in rubles. On Monday, the state-owned Terra Case said it expects the supply ban “after deciding not to comply with Gosprom’s unilateral tariff requirements” because it would violate European sanctions. The supply disruption, according to Terra Case, means that the Netherlands will lose two billion cubic meters of gas between now and October, indicating that it has acted in anticipation of this by “buying gas from other sources”.
On the other hand, the Danish energy company Ørsted warned that Russia could soon cut off gas supplies to Denmark for refusing to pay in rubles, while insisting that it could protect gas from the European market. Ørsted (formerly Dong Energy) insisted on continuing to pay in euros for gas exports from Russia, with the deadline for payment in rubles being May 31. “Gazprom Export continues to demand Ørsted payments for gas supplies in rubles,” the company said in a statement. “We have no legal obligation under the contract to do so and we have stated that we will not export Cosprom again and again,” he added. “Therefore, Gosprom exports run the risk of stopping the supply of Ørsted gas. In rsted’s view, this is a breach of contract.” He explained that Russia could not directly suspend gas supplies to Denmark because of the lack of a pipeline connecting the two countries directly.
To date, Gasprom has cut supplies to 4 European countries: Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands, amid expectations that gas supplies to Denmark will soon be cut off, two days ago after Russia announced its refusal to pay the ruble, that is, according to the new tariff mechanism. It is noteworthy that after “Casprom” stopped natural gas from Poland and Bulgaria on April 27, Poland began to buy Russian gas from Germany! Adopt new mechanism after interruption about gas supply Russian.
(Agencies)