Moscow has decided to cut off the supply of its gas pipelines to Poland and Bulgaria due to the refusal of these countries to change the conditions of their contracts and to abide by the mandatory conversion of their payments into rubles, as required by the Kremlin.
The Russian group Gazprom will cut off gas supplies to Poland from tomorrow, Wednesday, the Polish state gas company PGNiG said in a statement.
“On April 26, 2022, Gazprom informed PGNiG of its intention to completely suspend supplies under the Yamal contract on April 27,” PGNiG said, detailing that Poland was prepared to obtain the missing gas from other sources.
The Polish government also said it was prepared to deal with any supply disruption from Russia.
“There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes,” climate minister Anna Moskwa said on Twitter.
“From the first day of the war, we declared that we are prepared for full independence from Russian raw materials,” he said.
“Poland has the necessary gas reserves and supply sources to protect our security. For years we successfully gained independence from Russia », she stressed.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said gas storage facilities were 76% full and Poland was prepared to “get gas from all other possible parties”.
Gazprom did not confirm the interruption of supply, but several Russian news agencies quoted a senior executive of the company, according to which “Poland must pay for gas supplies according to the new payment procedure.”
After Western countries imposed a series of sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine invasion, the Kremlin warned that their gas supply would be cut off unless they paid in rubles.
Poland imports liquefied gas through a terminal on the Baltic Sea coast and also hopes to receive supplies from Norway through the Baltic Pipe project, scheduled for completion this year.
Shortly after that announcement, the Russian energy company informed Bulgaria that the supply will also be interrupted with this country from Wednesday, as confirmed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy.
