Moscow, Apr 27: Russia will suspend its natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday after they refused to pay in rubles.
Poland’s state-run gas firm PGNiG said, “On April 26, Gazprom informed PGNiG of its intention to entirely suspend deliveries under the Yamal contract at the beginning of the contract day on April 27.”
According to CNN, the latest announcement sent US natural gas futures up about 3 per cent on Tuesday.
However, Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has not yet confirmed that the supply of natural gas to Poland has been stopped, TASS reported.
Company’s spokesperson Sergey Kupriyanov, however, said that Poland needs to pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian energy ministry has said that Gazprom has informed Bulgaria’s state-owned gas company Bulgargaz that gas supplies will be stopped starting April 27.
The ministry said that the Bulgarian side has “fully fulfilled its obligations and has made all payments required under this contract in a timely manner, diligently and in accordance with its provisions” but paying in rubles would pose “significant risks” to Bulgaria.
“At present, no restrictive measures have been imposed on gas consumption in Bulgaria,” the ministry added.
Last month, Russia had demanded the “unfriendly” nations to pay for their energy in rubles from April 1 or they risked being cut off from vital supplies.
The Kremlin said payments for gas being delivered at the time of its announcement would fall due toward the end of April or the beginning of May, which is why Russia didn’t immediately shut off the flow of gas to Europe, CNN reported.
Despite Russia’s threat to stop gas supplies, Poland’s Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said on Tuesday, “Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply that protect our security – we have been effectively independent of Russia for years. There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes.” (UNI)
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