Russian gas - refusal: will Europe move from declarations to actions

Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Moskovskaya Gazeta on the possible consequences of Russia's decision to switch to ruble payments for gas.

Zero pumping of gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline has nothing to do with the decision to transfer payment for Russian gas into rubles, Alexey Gromov told Moskovskaya Gazeta.

“Based on the decision taken by the Russian President, by March 31, the Bank of Russia should provide clear mechanisms for transferring payments for Russian gas supplied to “unfriendly countries” in rubles. This decision and its implementation do not mean that from April 1, gas supplies to states that have even publicly stated that they will not comply with this decision of the Russian Federation will be stopped. After receiving this decision and taking into account the fact that the decision itself was brought to Gazprom in the form of a directive from the government as the main shareholder of the company, its further implementation will take place as part of commercial negotiations, and this will take some time. Therefore, the zeroing of the pumping of Russian gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline has nothing to do with this. On the other hand, we must understand that Russia provides gas supplies via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline only if there are relevant requests from European buyers. Apparently they don't exist now. Incidentally, this situation has been repeated several times in recent months. Evidence of my position is the fact that the flow of gas through Ukrainian transit, through the Nord Stream gas pipeline and through other channels is now at levels close to the maximum. This means that long-term gas supply contracts continue to be fulfilled, everything is going on as usual,” Alexey Gromov added.