© Archyde.com/DADO RUVIC
A model of a gasoline pump before the Gazprom logo
March 30 (Archyde.com) – Russia plans to keep the price of the gas export contract to “unfriendly” countries unchanged, but payment will have to be made in ruble equivalent on a previously agreed settlement day, this being one of the options for implementing the currency change, said two Russian sources.
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia, the world’s top natural gas producer, will soon require “unfriendly” countries to pay for fuel in rubles, raising alarm over a possible gas shortage in Europe.
“It only changes the currency of payment, but not the currency of the contract,” a source said. For example, for contracts closed in euros, payment must be made at the official ruble/euro exchange rate set by the Russian central bank, the source said.
The proposed scheme is one of the options and is not final, the sources said. According to a third Russian source, Gazprombank, which is Russia’s third largest bank, might serve as an intermediary for transactions between gas buyers and Gazprom.
“There is no final decision yet, work is ongoing,” a financial source who was involved in drawing up the gas payment plan told Archyde.com. The central bank, Gazprom and Gazprombank did not respond to a Archyde.com request for comment.
It is unclear whether gas buyers from so-called “unfriendly” countries — those that have joined Western sanctions on Russia — will accept the demand to pay in rubles.
Gazprombank is one of the main intermediaries for oil and gas payments from Russia. It was sanctioned by the UK along with other Russian companies earlier this month.
On Wednesday, Germany launched an emergency plan to manage gas supplies that might see Europe’s biggest economy ration energy if a standoff over Moscow’s demand for ruble payments disrupts or stops supply.
Putin is scheduled to hear proposals on Thursday on how to switch payments to rubles, including from Gazprom and the central bank, and the plan will be made public, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Wednesday.
Customers will not be required to switch to rubles as early as Thursday, Peskov said, as “payments and delivery is a time-consuming process.”
Gazprom, which accounts for 40% of Europe’s gas imports, does not disclose country-by-country gas prices but has forecast charging Western countries an average of $296 per 1,000 cubic meters this year, compared to $280 2021.
(Archyde.com Reporting; Editing by Tomasz Janowski; Translation by Flora Gómez)
