OSLO—Gazprom Russia’s (MCX: GAZP) stopped sending gas to neighboring Finland on Saturday, the Finnish gas system operator said. This is the latest step in a dispute with Western countries over energy payments.
Gazprom Export wants European countries to pay for Russian gas supplies in roubles because of sanctions put in place because Moscow invaded Ukraine, but Finland won’t do that.
Gasgrid Finland said in a statement that gas imports through the Imatra entry point have been stopped.
Imatra is where Russian gas comes into Finland.
Gasum, which is owned by the Finnish government and sells gas, said on Friday that Gazprom had warned that gas flows would stop at 4:00 a.m. GMT on Saturday.
On Saturday, Gasum also said that the flows had stopped.
In a statement, it said that Gasum’s contract to send natural gas to Finland had been broken.
“Starting today and through the summer, Gasum will get natural gas for its customers through the Balticconnector pipeline from other sources.”
The Balticconnector connects Finland to the gas grid in nearby Estonia.
Gazprom Export said on Friday that flows would be cut because Gasum had not followed the new rules in Russia that require payments to be made in roubles.
Most of the gas that Finland uses comes from Russia, but gas only makes up about 5% of its annual energy needs.
Most supply contracts in Europe are written in euros or dollars, and Moscow cut off gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month because they didn’t agree to the new payment terms.
Gasum, the Finnish government, and companies that use gas in Finland have all said that they are ready for Russian gas flows to stop and that the country will be fine without them.
Gasgrid said on Saturday that the Finnish gas system is in balance from a physical and a business point of view.
Finland said on Friday that it had agreed to rent from Excelerate Energy in the U.S. a storage and regasification vessel to help replace Russian supplies starting in the fourth quarter of this year.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) that comes in on ships is turned back into regular gas by the ship.
