Russia's Gazprom halts gas supplies to two EU countries

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in rubles.

"Gazprom has completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland) due to absence of payments in rubles," Gazprom said in a statement.

Gazprom also warned that transit via Poland and Bulgaria - which host pipelines supplying Germany, Hungary and Serbia - would be cut if gas was taken illegally.

"Payments for gas supplied from April 1 must be made in rubles using the new payments details, about which the counterparties were informed in a timely manner," Gazprom said.

Yesterday Gazprom has informed Bulgarian company Bulgargaz that it would halt natural gas supplies to Bulgaria starting from April 27, the Bulgarian energy ministry said.

"Today, April 26, Bulgargaz EAD received a notification that the deliveries of natural gas from Gazprom Export will be suspended as of April 27, 2022," the ministry said.

Poland has repeatedly said it will not pay for Russian gas in rubles and has planned not to extend its gas contract with Gazprom after it expires in the end of this year.

The Yamal-Europe pipeline across Poland supplies Russian gas to Germany, though it has mostly been working in a reverse mode this year, supplying gas eastward from Germany. Bulgaria is a transit country for gas supplies to Serbia and Hungary.

The benchmark Dutch front-month gas contract at the TTF hub jumped by more than 19% on the day on Wednesday morning to 117 euros per megawatt hour.