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• Gas company said any cease in supplies would breach the agreement, which will expire later in 2022
• Poland’s prime minister said it would stick to the original arrangements and won’t pay in Rubles
Poland’s PGNiG on Tuesday said Russian energy giant Gazprom would halt gas supplies along the Yamal pipeline from Wednesday morning, in a major escalation in the standoff between Moscow and Europe amid the war in Ukraine.
Gazprom has been telling its clients to pay in Ruble for doing business since March and has issued a warning on Tuesday that Poland must have to pay up in the Russian currency.
“I can confirm we’ve received such threats from Gazprom which are linked among other things to the means of payment,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters in Berlin.
PGNiG said it would take steps to reinstate the gas flow as per the Yamal contract will expire at the end of 2022, and any cease in supplies will breach the agreement.
Poland signed contracts with Gazprom to import 10.2 billion cubic meters per year, which covers about 50% of national consumption.
The Polish gas company added it has the right to pursue damages over breach of contract.
“Poland is sticking to the arrangements,” Morawiecki said, assuming that Russia would try to punish the country by halting gas export.
The European nation has repeatedly said it would not comply with the new payment scheme after Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that countries, that make payments for Russian gas imports in Euros or Dollars, need to open accounts at Gazprombank and must pay in Rubles.
Physical gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Belarus to Poland had been halted earlier, Reuters reported citing data from the European Union network of gas transmission operators, but they resumed later on Tuesday.
While the Polish government said it had sufficient reserves, the climate ministry on Tuesday mentioned that there is no need to draw from the stockpile, and gas to consumers would not be cut.
Poland on Tuesday imposed sanctions, under a law passed earlier this month, on 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom, allowing their assets to be frozen.
The law is separate from sanctions imposed jointly by EU countries.
Picture Credit: Reuters
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