Russia widened its gas cuts to Europe on Tuesday with Gazprom saying it will turn off supplies to several “unfriendly” countries which have refused to accept Moscow’s roubles-for-gas payment scheme.
The move by the Russian gas giant is the latest retaliation to western sanctions imposed on Moscow following its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, escalating its economic battle with Brussels and pushing up European gas prices.
Gazprom said on Tuesday it had fully cut off gas supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerra.
It later said it would also stop as of June 1 gas flows to Denmark’s Orsted and to Shell Energy for its contract on gas supplies to Germany, after both failed to make payments in roubles.
The announcements follow Monday’s agreement by EU leaders to cut the EU’s imports of Russian oil by 90 per cent by year-end, the bloc’s toughest yet response to the invasion.
GasTerra, which buys and trades gas on behalf of the Dutch government, said it had contracted elsewhere for the 2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas it had expected to receive from Gazprom through October.
“This is not yet seen as a threat to supplies,” said economy affairs ministry spokesperson Pieter ten Bruggencate. Orsted, which has also said there was no immediate risk to Denmark’s gas supplies, said on Tuesday it would turn to the European gas market to fill the gap.
“The gas for Denmark must, to a larger extent, be purchased on the European gas market. We expect this to be possible,” Orsted chief executive Mads Nipper said in a statement shortly after Gazprom’s announcement.
The benchmark front-month gas contract rose around 5 per cent on Tuesday afternoon to around 91.05 euros/MWh but remained well below highs over 300 euros/MWh hit in early March.
“While the market was largely expecting both companies to be cut off, this development will make the supply-demand balance that much tighter,” ICIS analyst Tom Marzec-Manser said on Twitter.
Russian gas flows to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline fell on Tuesday which analysts said was likely due to the Netherlands being cut off.
Moscow had already stopped natural gas supplies to Bulgaria, Poland and Finland citing their refusal to pay in Russian roubles. German, Italian and French companies, however, have said they would engage with the scheme to maintain supplies.
