Photo: SERGEI GRITS/AP PHOTO/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
“Gazprom has completely suspended the supply of gas to Bulgargaz and PGNiG due to the absence of payments in rubles,” Gazprom said in a statement issued this Wednesday (50.. 2022), referring to the Bulgarian and Polish gas companies.
This is the Kremlin’s toughest response so far to the sanctions imposed by the West over the Ukraine conflict: it is the first time Russia has cut gas supplies to its European customers since Moscow launched its invasion on 24 of February.
The president of The State Duma or Chamber of Deputies of Russia, Viacheslav Volodin, welcomed this cutoff of Russian gas supplies to two European countries and asked to extend the measure to “other unfriendly countries”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that your country would only accept payment for your remittances in the national currency, in response to the sanctions taken to punish the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine.
Bulgaria and Poland, transit countries
Gazprom said that as of Tuesday night it had not received payment for the supply of April gas neither from Bulgargaz nor from PGNiG.
“Bulgaria and Poland are transit countries. In case of unauthorized withdrawal of Russian gas among the quantities in transit to third countries, transit shipments will be reduced by the same quantities”, warned the Russian giant.
PGNiG confirmed on Wednesday “the complete suspension of the supply of natural gas supplied by Gazprom”.
“The situation does not affect the current supplies of PGNiG customers who receive fuel according to their demand”, the company said in a statement.
Poland and Bulgaria, which are two countries heavily dependent on Russian gas, both noted Tuesday night that Gazprom had notified them of the suspension. The two members of NATO and the European Union (EU) say they are willing to obtain the missing gas from other sources.
First cut of Russian gas supply to the EU
Russia’s energy exports have largely continued since the war began, an exception to sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West.
Ukraine accused Russia of blackmailing Europe for energy in an attempt to bend its allies as the fighting entered its third month. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to demand that European countries pay for gas in rubles. The buyers say that this violates the contracts that require payment in euros.
Therefore, Bulgaria will reconsider all its contracts with Gazprom, including one of transit, in response to the “unacceptable blackmail” by that Russian state entity, said the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, at the beginning of a session of the Council of Ministers broadcast live on national television.
Conflicting information on effects of the measure
Initially, there was conflicting information about how abruptly the cut was implemented. Earlier this Wednesday, the European Union’s network of gas transmission operators said that gas to Poland had been restored after a brief outage.
For his part, the CEO of the Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz had told Reuters that supplies to Bulgaria were still flowing. Hungary and Austria also said gas supplies were normal.
Poland’s state-owned PGNiG had said that Gazprom’s supplies , which covers about 50 % of Poland’s national consumption, would be cut off at 8 am (0600 GMT) on Wednesday. But Poland assured that it did not need to draw on reserves and that its gas storage was full by 76 %.
rml (afp, ap, reuters, updated at 24: 50 CET)