This story is presented with one caveat as the only news source is the UK Express at this time:
‘Hostile environment!’ Germany left scrambling as Putin cuts off Gazprom gas supply
From the story:
Germany depends on Russian gas for about 40 percent of its needs, but has joined Western sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine, including by halting the Nord Stream 2 Baltic gas pipeline designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany. The Russian gas supplier said it had terminated its participation in Gazprom Germania GMBH and all of its assets, including Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd.
Once this story is confirmed, the implications are going to shake all of Europe. If Germany, Denmark, France, and other nations have refused to convert payments to Rubles, then the cut off of Russia gas will have an immediate impact on the economies of those nations. There was a reversal of the gas flow reported on March 31, but that was a normal activity designed to replenish supplies in Poland from Germany and happens all the time.
This time it would appear though, that the flow through the Yamal-Europe pipeline is shut down for real and the West will be left scrambling over the weekend:
The Russians also confirmed that Gazprom has essentially ceased operations in the United Kingdom with this story via TASS today:
Shell unable to buy Russian gas due to London’s anti-Russian stance – Kremlin spokesman
Shell’s inability to buy Russian gas is a side effect of London’s anti-Russian policies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told TASS.
“London wants to be the leader of everything anti-Russian, it even wants to be ahead of Washington [in this matter]. Well, here are the side effects,” Peskov said, commenting on the fact that, in contrast with other EU countries, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Gazprombank and is now unable to pay for Russian gas, even in rubles.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Shell will most likely be unable to pay for Russian gas this month, because the United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on Gazprombank.
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin requested moving payments for gas supplies to unfriendly countries to rubles, saying that Moscow would refuse accepting payments on such contracts in discredited currencies, including dollars and euros. He also tasked the government with giving Gazprom an instruction on amending present contracts. On March 31, Putin signed a decree on rules of gas trade with unfriendly countries, which stipulates a new system of contract payment.
The new procedure of payment for Russian pipeline gas in rubles by buyers from unfriendly countries came into force on April 1. Such buyers are required to open special ruble and foreign currency accounts with Gazprombank to pay for gas supplies. Currency conversion will be carried out on Russian exchanges. In case of incomplete payment, the Russian customs is authorized to ban deliveries. The government commission for the control of foreign investment in Russia has the right to issue exceptions to these rules for individual buyers.
If Shell can not purchase gas, no one else can either due to the sanctions regime in the UK.
Meanwhile, Interfax.ru confirms that the flow through Ukraine continues normally but does not specify which nations are paying in Rubles. The flow through the Yamal-Europe pipeline is still halted per the news article at 09:30 Moscow time:
The physical flow of gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline ( transports gas through Belarus and Poland to Germany ) at the entrance to the GTS of Germany stopped on Friday evening. This is due to the fact that the amount of applications in the direct ( from Russia to Germany ) and reverse ( from Germany to Poland ) direction is almost equal. From Saturday morning, the amount of obverse and reverse applications is added up in favor of the reverse direction.
Because of the bad weather that came to Europe in the region, the situation with the generation of electricity through wind power generation has finally improved. If at the beginning of this week wind farms provided only 10% of electricity generation in the EU, then on Friday their share recovered to 23%, according to data from the WindEurope association.
Stay tuned as this story is still developing and will create total chaos in energy markets throughout European capitals once confirmed.
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