Russian gas supplies to Finland will be cut off on Saturday, The Finnish state energy group Gasum said this Friday, after the Nordic country refused to pay for that service in rubles, as required by the Russian group Gazprom.
“It is very unfortunate that the supply of natural gas under our supply contract is interrupted. In any case, we have been carefully preparing for this situation and there will be no interruptions in the gas supply networks.Gasum chairman Mika Wiljanen added in a statement.
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Finland feared for several days that the gas supply would be cut off from Russia, something that will happen from 07:00 (04:00 GMT), according to Gasum.
In April, Gazprom asked that the gas it exports to other countries be paid for in rubles and not in euros, but Gasum rejected this demand and announced on Tuesday that it had requested an arbitration procedure.
This Friday, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, told the press that it is “obvious that nobody will give anything away for free.”
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We have been carefully preparing for this situation and there will be no interruptions in the gas supply networks
Although gas only accounts for 8% of the energy consumed in Finland, practically all the gas used in the country comes from Russia.
Finland announced plans to be able to avoid the use of Russian gas next winter, such as leasing a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification unit with Estonia for ten years.
Gazprom has already cut supplies of its gas to other countries, including Poland and Bulgaria, which also refused to pay for deliveries in rubles to avoid supporting the Russian economy during the war in Ukraine.
AFP
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