Because the companies refuse to pay in rubles, Gazprom stops gas deliveries to Shell Energy Europe and the Danish utility Orsted. And starting this Wednesday. As the Danes report, the country does not expect supply bottlenecks.
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom will no longer supply gas to the Danish supplier Orsted and Shell Energy Europe from this Wednesday, June 1st. Orsted and Shell have informed Gazprom Export that they will not pay the invoices in rubles, as Moscow has requested, the Russian company said. Because no money had flowed for the month of April, deliveries would now be stopped.
As Orsted announced, Gazprom has informed the Danish group that it will stop gas supplies on Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. Gazprom has maintained its demand that the gas must be paid for in rubles - Orsted is not contractually obliged to do so and will continue to pay in euros. The situation underscores the need for the EU to become independent of Russian gas through the accelerated expansion of renewable energies, said CEO Mads Nipper.
Supply bottlenecks are not expected in Denmark. According to Orsted, Russia cannot directly cut off gas supplies to Denmark because there is no gas pipeline leading directly from the energy superpower to the country. Denmark is therefore still able to obtain gas. However, this would then have to be purchased on a larger scale on the European gas market.
In response to sanctions over Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, Moscow has ordered European countries to pay for energy in Russian currency. Otherwise the delivery stop was threatened. The Dutch gas company Gasterra announced on Monday that Gazprom would not deliver two billion cubic meters of gas to the Netherlands. Energy supplies had previously been stopped for Poland, Bulgaria and Finland.
