The supply of natural gas from Russia to Finland will be cut off on Saturday morning (21/05), Finnish and Russian energy companies said on Friday. The reason is that Helsinki has refused to pay Russian supplier Gazprom in roubles.
“É extremamente lamentável que o fornecimento de gás natural sob nosso contrato seja interrompido”, disse em comunicado Mika Wiljanen, CEO da empresa de energia estatal finlandesa Gasum.
He said, however, that the company was prepared for the situation and that consumers should not be affected. Supply will come from other sources, such as the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which links Finland to Estonia.
Gazprom Export, the exporting arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom, said that it had not received payment for gas supplied in April and would therefore stop deliveries from 7am this Saturday (local time).
In April, Gazprom Export demanded that payments for the contract be made in rubles, the Russian currency, instead of euros, as used to be the case. Gasum, however, rejected the demand and announced on Tuesday that it would take the case to court.
A Gazprom Export informou que defenderia seus interesses no tribunal por qualquer “meio disponível”.
Asked about the issue, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "it's obvious that nobody is going to give anything away for free". However, he asked reporters to contact Gazprom for more details.
Natural gas accounts for around 8% of Finland's energy consumption, most of it coming from Russia.
Efforts to reduce Russian dependence
In efforts to mitigate the risks of relying on Russian energy exports, the Finnish government announced on Friday that the country has signed a contract with US-based Excelerate Energy for the ten-year lease of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal ship.
“O terminal de GNL permitirá que nos libertemos do gás russo”, disse a ministra das Finanças finlandesa, Annika Saarikko.
Interruption of power supply
Last weekend, Russia suspended electricity supplies to Finland, after Russian subsidiary RAO Nordic claimed late payments. The shortfall was quickly replaced by other sources and consumers were not harmed, said the Finnish government.
Finland, along with neighboring Sweden, this week abandoned its history of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO, after public and political support for the military alliance skyrocketed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Moscou alertou a Finlândia que qualquer pedido de adesão à Otan seria “um grave erro com consequências de longo alcance”.
By DW