Filenews 21 May 2022
Russia's Gazprom today Saturday halted gas exports to neighbouring Finland, the Finnish gas transmission system management company said, in the latest escalation of a dispute with Western countries over energy payments.
Gazprom Export has demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles because of the sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but Finland refuses to do so.
"Gas imports through the Imatra entry point have stopped," Gasgrid Finland said in a statement.
Imatra is the entry point of Russian gas into Finland.
They were warned...
Finnish state-owned gas company Gasum said yesterday that Gazprom had warned that the flow would be cut off from 07:00 this morning.
Gasum, for its part, confirmed today that the flow has been interrupted.
"Gas supplies to Finland under Gasum's supply contract have been discontinued," he said in a statement.
Starting today, during the upcoming summer season, Gasum will provide natural gas to its customers from other sources via the Balticconnector pipeline.
The Balticconnector connects Finland to the gas network of neighbouring Estonia.
The majority of the gas used in Finland comes from Russia, but gas accounts for only about 5% of its annual energy consumption.
Many European energy supply contracts are in euros or dollars, and Moscow stopped supplying gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month after they refused to comply with the new payment terms.
Source: philenews/KYPE
