Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 27 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Russia mulls rubles-for-LNG scheme

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Gazprom is considering expanding special accounts in Gazprombank. The buyers
its rubles-for-gas scheme for pipeline sales to must transfer US dollar and euro-denominated
The system has already Europe to LNG as well, Interfax reported on July payments to one account, where Gazprombank
been applied to pipeline 4, although the Kremlin has said no decision on moves them into a ruble-denominated account,
gas sales. the matter has been taken yet. and sends them to Gazprom.
Kirill Polous, a deputy department head at The majority of Gazprom’s customers in
Gazprom, was quoted as saying by Interfax that Europe complied with the decree, and those that
Gazprom had made the proposal, citing foreign refused, including buyers in Bulgaria, Denmark,
exchange competition between pipeline gas sold Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland,
in rubles and LNG that is sold in US dollars. had their supply cut off.
“Currently no decisions have been taken Asked by Reuters this week, buyers of Russian
in this regard and there are not any prepared LNG in Japan and Korea confirmed that they
orders,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had not yet received a request from Gazprom
told reporters. for payment in rubles. The two countries have
Asked whether an LNG-for-rubles scheme supported Western sanctions against Russia and
might cover all LNG from Russia, which comes condemned its invasion of Ukraine.
mainly from Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 project and By requiring buyers to make payments into
the Novatek-led Yamal LNG plant, Peskov redi- one Russian bank and not into accounts at Euro-
rected questions to Gazprom. pean banks, Russia is effectively preventing
At the end of March Russian President Western countries from appropriating funds in
Vladimir Putin issued a decree requiring all buy- order to deprive the Kremlin from financing for
ers of pipeline gas in “unfriendly countries” that its war, and for potential use in reconstructing
have supported sanctions against Russia to set up Ukraine. ™

Bosnia, Moldova and North Macedonia

highly exposed to gas supply disruptions

EU BOSNIA & Herzegovina, Moldova and North and Turkey as well Bulgaria and North Mac-
Macedonia might be highly exposed to gas edonia was one of the biggest regional chal-
The two countries are supply disruptions due to their dependence on lenges and the Bulgarian gas transmission
among the most reliant Russian gas, as well as reliance on limited infra- system operator, Bulgartransgaz, welcomed
on Russian gas. structure and insufficient financial resources to proposed assistance from the EU to accelerate
secure alternative gas supplies, the Energy Com- the process.
munity said on July 4. Participants acknowledged the value of the
The Energy Community held its fourth SEEGAS project, which provides a much-needed
South-East European Gas (SEEGAS) Joint platform for Energy Community and EU stake-
Steering Committee meeting in Vienna on June holders to discuss critical issues including the
30 and July 1, when participants agreed that the importance of having in place interconnection
risks of a Russian gas supply disruption in the agreements between EU countries and Energy
region can only be addressed through further Community contracting parties, access to sup-
market integration and the harmonisation of plies and transmission capacity and removing
market rules, as well as trading and post-trading regulatory bottlenecks.
structures on regional gas exchanges. The Energy Community Secretariat said it
Participants agreed that the delay in signing will propose solutions on how these challenges
interconnection agreements between Bulgaria could be overcome in September. ™

Week 27 07•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11