Poland should pay for gas on Tues in line with new rules, Gazprom does not confirm cessation of deliveries

MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - On April 26, Poland should pay for Russian gas according to the new ruble scheme, Gazprom said on Tuesday.

The company did not confirm that supplies to the country had already been suspended, saying that today Warsaw "is obliged to pay for gas supplies in accordance with the new payment procedure."

Earlier, Polish publication Onet reported that supplies of Russian gas had stopped. However, this information was only partially confirmed. According to ENTSOG, the Association of European Gas Transmission Operators, Poland has indeed stopped receiving natural gas from the east via the Yamal-Europe pipeline since the early morning of 25 April: gas flow to the Kondratka gas metering station has stopped on Monday. At the same time, it had dropped to zero before - at night on April 24, gas pumping stopped and then resumed. A similar situation occurred on 1 April.

Simultaneously gas intake continued through other routes - Teterevka and Vysokoye on the border in Belarus and Drozdovichi on the border with Ukraine.

Poland has been keen to reduce gas purchases in Russia in April as its price according to the month ahead index could be up to 1.5 times the spot price. In these conditions, Polish importers have reduced intake from Russia and have increased imports from spot hubs sites in the west.

As previously reported, Decree No. 172 of the President of the Russian Federation was signed on March 31, titled On the Special Procedure for Foreign Buyers to Comply with Obligations to Russian Suppliers of Natural Gas. The document stipulates that payments for Russian pipeline gas supplied after April 1, 2022, to foreign counterparties specified in the decree must be remitted exclusively in Russian rubles.

For this purpose, special ruble and forex K accounts are created for foreign buyers in the authorized financial institute, Gazprombank . A foreign buyer pays for gas in the currency of the contract, and Gazprombank sells it at the Moscow Exchange and transfers the rubles to Gazprom. At that moment, the obligation to pay for gas is deemed fulfilled. These accounts cannot be suspended, frozen or debited as part of the fulfilment of the obligations of a foreign buyer not associated with payments under contracts for the supply of natural gas.