Estonia not planning to pay for Russian gas in rubles

TALLIN. April 27 (Interfax) - Estonian gas company Eesti Gaas has no plans to pay Gazprom for gas in rubles or buy gas from Russia, and it intends to ensure security of supply by purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Klaipeda.

"The European Commission has published its initial position, which says that paying in rubles is a problem, because of which European countries and European companies have not accepted these payments in rubles, and therefore we cannot accept them," Eesti Gaas head Margus Kaasik told Estonian broadcaster ERR.

Gas supplies are guaranteed from Eesti Gaas' reserves, he said, and the company also buys liquefied natural gas through Klaipeda.

Eesti Gaas said the price for regular customers will not change in the coming months. "The same April price will be extended for May and June as well. At the moment, residential customers don't have to worry much about those months," Kaazik said.

He admitted that problems could arise in the fall, since the Klaipeda terminal is insufficient to replenish the winter reserves of the Incukalns UGS facility in Latvia. Kaazik sees construction of another LNG terminal as the way out. "It's hard to do without it," he said.

Russia on Wednesday ceased gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, which refused to pay for gas in rubles. Warsaw announced that it would partially replace Russian gas with LNG. The Polish-Lithuanian pipeline will open in May, allowing Poland to begin buying LNG from Klaipeda. The future capacity of the Klaipeda floating LNG terminal is already fully booked.