(Montel) Russia will cut gas supplies to Finland starting on Saturday, said Finnish energy company Gasum.
“Gazprom Export informed Gasum [on Friday afternoon] that natural gas supplies to Finland under Gasum’s supply contract will be cut on Saturday… at 07:00 [EET],” Gasum said in a statement on Friday.
“It is highly regrettable that natural gas supplies under our supply contract will now be halted. However, we have been carefully preparing for this situation and provided that there will be no disruptions in the gas transmission network, we will be able to supply all our customers with gas in the coming months,” said Gasum’s CEO Mika Wiljanen.
The company warned already on Wednesday that flows could be cut from this weekend due to its refusal to pay in rubles. Russia stopped flows to Poland and Bulgaria last month for similar reasons.
The halt in flows to the Nordic nation also comes after the governments of Finland and Sweden officially announced their intention to join the 30-nation Nato defensive alliance, in response to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Just over 5% – or around 25 TWh – of the energy used in Finland is from natural gas – 92% of which came from Russia last year via the 6bcm Imatra-Vyborg connection, while the rest mainly came via the 2.6bcm Balticconnector pipeline from Estonia.
Gazprom also said via its Telegram account that it had notified Gasum of the suspension of gas supplies as of Saturday, “until payment is made in accordance with the procedure established by the decree [which stipulates payment in rubles]”.
Gazprom said it had not received payment for gas supplies in April as of the 20 May payment deadline.
Earlier on Friday, the Finnish government announced it has secured an agreement to rent a floating LNG terminal.
“It is highly regrettable that natural gas supplies under our supply contract will now be halted. However, we have been carefully preparing for this situation and provided that there will be no disruptions in the gas transmission network, we will be able to supply all our customers with gas in the coming months,” said Gasum’s CEO Mika Wiljanen.
The company warned already on Wednesday that flows could be cut from this weekend due to its refusal to pay in rubles. Russia stopped flows to Poland and Bulgaria last month for similar reasons.
The halt in flows to the Nordic nation also comes after the governments of Finland and Sweden officially announced their intention to join the 30-nation Nato defensive alliance, in response to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Just over 5% – or around 25 TWh – of the energy used in Finland is from natural gas – 92% of which came from Russia last year via the 6bcm Imatra-Vyborg connection, while the rest mainly came via the 2.6bcm Balticconnector pipeline from Estonia.
Gazprom also said via its Telegram account that it had notified Gasum of the suspension of gas supplies as of Saturday, “until payment is made in accordance with the procedure established by the decree [which stipulates payment in rubles]”.
Gazprom said it had not received payment for gas supplies in April as of the 20 May payment deadline.
Earlier on Friday, the Finnish government announced it has secured an agreement to rent a floating LNG terminal.
