© Archyde.com/MAXIM SHEMETOV
Valves at the Atamanskaya compression station, part of Gazprom’s Power Of Siberia project outside the city of Svobodny
March 28 (Archyde.com) – Russia is working out methods to accept payment for its gas exports in rubles and will make decisions in due course if European countries refuse to pay in Russian currency, the Kremlin said on Monday.
At a meeting of European Union leaders on Friday, no common position was reached on last week’s Russian demand that “unfriendly” countries pay for their gas in rubles rather than euros, after that the United States and European allies had come together to apply a series of sanctions against Russia.
Concerns about security of supply have increased following the requirement, and companies and EU countries have been quick to analyze the consequences.
The Russian central bank, the government and Gazprom, which accounts for 40% of Europe’s gas imports, are due to submit their gas payment proposals in rubles to President Vladimir Putin by March 31.
“We are not going to supply gas for free, this is clear,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said in a conference call. “In our situation, it is neither possible nor appropriate to practice charity (with European clients).”
On Friday, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner advised German energy providers not to pay for Russian gas in rubles, in an interview with Welt broadcaster.
Italy will continue to pay Russia for energy in euros, a senior economic adviser to the Italian government said last week.
“The only big problem in Europe is gas and Russia asks us to pay in rubles, which we don’t have and is not in the contract,” Italian energy group Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi told a sector event on Monday. in the United Arab Emirates.
Poland’s PGNiG, which has a contract with Gazprom until the end of the year, has also said it cannot just pay in rubles.
The EU aims to cut its dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end imports of Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
On Friday, the United States said it would work to supply 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year.
US LNG plants are producing at full capacity and analysts say most of the additional US gas sent to Europe would have to come from exports that would have gone elsewhere.
Russian gas exports to the EU were about 155 km³ last year.
(Archyde.com reporting; writing by Nina Chestney; editing by Robert Birsel and David Evans; translation by Flora Gómez)