Finland won't stop buying Russian gas – media
Finnish state-run energy provider Gasum intends to continue buying gas from Russia, Yle news outlet reported on Monday, citing a statement from the company.
Gasum has a long-term gas supply contract with Russia, which was signed before Ukraine-related EU sanctions and Russian counter-sanctions were introduced last year, according to the statement. This will be valid “for several more years,” the company said, noting that it is obliged to pay under the contract and doesn’t intend to breach this agreement.
“The contract is a so-called take-or-pay contract, which is common in gas supply contracts. It means that Gasum is obliged to pay for a certain amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG) every year, whether we get it from Russia or not,” the company explained to Yle in an email. Gasum noted that it has no legal grounds to terminate the contract or take it to arbitration.
In response to EU sanctions last year, Moscow demanded that buyers in countries that supported them must pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles instead of dollars or euro. Finland refused to accept the change in payments, and Gazprom suspended pipeline gas deliveries to the country.
However, Helsinki continued to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russian Novatek’s Cryogas-Vysotsk LNG plant. Gasum claims that it imports only the bare minimum of the fuel from Russia to avoid a breach.
“Gasum has only imported the minimum amount of LNG from Russia as stipulated in the contract. We have not agreed on any additional shipments and we do not intend to do so in the future,” it explained.
According to the Finnish customs service, Gasum has bought around $188 million worth of natural gas from Russia since February 2022. In 2021, Gazprom supplied Gasum with 1.49 billion cubic meters of gas, which equated to two-thirds of Finland’s total consumption.
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