Gasum chief executive Mika Wiljanen said: “It is very regrettable that gas supply under our supply contracts will now cease,” adding that the company has been “well prepared for this scenario”.
Finland officially announced its intention to join NATO on Sunday, relinquishing decades of neutrality and ignoring threats of possible Russian retaliation to bolster its security in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Russian state gas giant Gazprom did not immediately respond to CNN Business when asked for comment.
Finland According to the International Energy Agency, nearly 68% of natural gas consumption in 2020 is dependent on Russia.
But according to Eurostat and the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators, Russia’s gas exports account for only 3 percent of the Nordic country’s total energy mix, which includes energy from biofuels and nuclear power.
Wiljanen said Gasoum “will be able to supply all [of its] There will be customers of gas in the coming months” provided there is no disruption to the gas transmission network, but he added that winter will be “challenging”.
Gasum Vice President Olga Väisänen told CNN on Friday that Finland also receives gas via Estonia via its Baltic Sea connection. The pipeline connects Finland’s gas transmission network to Estonia’s and allows it to tap into Latvia’s underground storage.
Since then, EU officials, governments and energy companies have been scrambling to figure out whether the new payment mechanism violates sanctions on Russia.
But the European Commission is sticking to guidelines issued last week barring buyers from opening ruble accounts. European Commission chief spokesman Eric Mammer told a news conference on Tuesday that the move would violate sanctions.
“Anything that opens an account and pays to that account in a currency beyond the contractual currency with Gazprombank, and then makes a statement that … you have made the payment is a violation of sanctions,” he said.
Earlier this week, the European Union said it would spend 210 billion euros ($222 billion) to wean itself off Russian oil and gas.
— Robert North contributed reporting.