Gazprom shuts off Netherlands gas supply today

Amsterdam, May 31 - Neftegaz.RU. The Russian state gas company Gazprom will stop supplying the Netherlands gas trader GasTerra from today, the Brussels Times has reported.

GasTerra, which is part-owned by Shell, Esso Nederland and the Dutch state, refused to acquiesce to the demands of Russian President Putin and pay its bills in rubles.
The company announced in a press release:

• GasTerra will not be supplied with 2.0 billion m³ of gas by Gazprom during the period 31 May to 30 September 2022

At the end of March, Russia responded to Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine by announcing that payments for gas would have to be made in rubles.

In concrete terms, this means that buyers of Russian gas would have to open both a euro and a ruble account at the Gazprombank in Moscow, something that GasTerra refuses to do.

«These payment requirements risk violating the EU sanctions,» GasTerra said, while also referring to the financial and operational risks of «opening accounts in Moscow under Russian law and its control by the Russian regime.»

The Netherlands is not the 1^st country that Russia has stopped supplying with gas; deliveries to Finland, Poland and Bulgaria were shut also off for the same reason.

GasTerra’s contract with Gazprom was set to end on 1 October 2022, after which it will not be renewed.
The company had anticipated Russia’s powerplay by purchasing gas elsewhere.

While the European gas market is highly integrated and large, the company stressed that it is currently «impossible to say in advance» what effect the loss of 2 billion m³ of Russian gas will have on supply and demand.
The development will test the resilience of the European market.

The gas price on the leading Amsterdam stock exchange shot up after the announcement of GasTerra, but the spike was short-lived.