EU and U.S. condemn Russia’s use of «energy blackmail» through actions like gas supply halt

Brussels, May 25 - Neftegaz.RU. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, and the U.S. have condemned «Russia’s use of energy blackmail», like cutting off gas supplies to Finland, and welcomed Finland’s contract to lease a floating LNG import terminal as part of efforts to strengthen energy security and diversify supply, Offshore Energy has reported.

The two have also reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening Europe’s energy security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s Gazprom last Saturday informed it had completely suspended gas supplies to Finland’s Gasum due to its failure to pay in rubles for the gas supplied in April.
Gazprom said:

• Payments for gas supplied since April 1 must be made in rubles via new account details, of which the counterparties were duly informed

Gazprom noted that, in 2021, it delivered 1.49 billion m³ of gas to Gasum, which made up 2/3 of Finland’s total gas consumption.
The statement from the EC underlined that efforts are underway to diversify supplies and reduce dependence on Russian gas.

Since 2020, Finland has been interconnected to Estonia via the Balticconnector, a project supported by the EC, which increases the security of supply for Finland and the region.

Furthermore, on 1 May, the Poland-Lithuania Gas Interconnector started its commercial operation which reinforces the optionality and resilience of the whole Baltic gas market and was also supported through the Connecting Europe Facility of the EC.


Through the Task Force, the governments will continue working to diversify Europe’s supply of gas while accelerating the deployment of energy efficiency and smart technologies in European homes and businesses, electrifying heating, and ramping up clean energy output to reduce the demand for fossil fuels altogether.

As one of the important steps towards realizing these goals, the EC and the U.S. welcomed Finland’s contract to lease a floating LNG import terminal from a U.S. provider that will be operational before the end of this year.

Namely, on 20 May Texas-based Excelerate Energy and Gasgrid Finland signed a deal to charter a FSRU that will provide LNG to Finland, Estonia and the Baltic Sea Region.

As a result, Excelerate will deploy its Exemplar FSRU to provide regasification services in Southern Finland.
The Exemplar has a storage capacity of 150,900 m³ of LNG and can provide more than 5 billion m³ per year of regasification capacity.

Author: Nermina Kulovic