02/04/2022 09:23 (act 02/04/2022 09:23)
Gazprom fulfills contracts ©APA/AFP
Despite the war in Ukraine, Russian state-owned Gazprom continues to pump gas westward on a massive scale. This Saturday, 108 million cubic meters are due to be delivered through the neighboring country’s pipeline system, as announced by the group in Moscow. According to Russian information, this corresponds to the quantity ordered. This means that deliveries over the other lines will continue even after payments have been transferred to rubles.
The maximum contractually possible use is 109 million cubic meters of gas per day. The deliveries were confirmed by the operator of the Ukrainian gas transit network, as reported by the Interfax agency.
Ukraine receives substantial transit fees for Russian gas transit for its own state budget. According to Interfax, however, no gas is currently flowing through the Russian-European “Yamal-Europe” pipeline via Belarus and Poland to Germany. Instead, the gas is diverted from Germany to Poland in the so-called reverse process of European storage facilities.
This means that deliveries will continue even after switching to ruble. President Vladimir Putin had instructed that gas should only be sold to Western countries for rubles, which they strictly rejected. Putin then issued a decree forcing Western customers to open a ruble account with Gazprombank and process payments through it.
In this way, Russia wants to support its currency, but also ensure that the deposited money actually arrives. Previously, payments could also be made through other accounts. Putin threatened Germany and other countries to stop deliveries if payments were not made.