Particular attention was paid to the gas payments of the Uniper Group.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf The energy companies RWE and Uniper have paid their Russian gas bills due in May in euros. A Uniper spokesman told Handelsblatt: “Like other German and European companies before us, we have changed the payment method for gas deliveries from Russia. The first of these payments was made at the end of May.”
Uniper pays in euros in accordance with the new payment mechanism, acts in compliance with sanctions and can continue to guarantee timely performance of the contract. The procedure was agreed in advance with the federal government and follows the relevant EU guidelines. RWE also confirmed to the Handelsblatt that the company had transferred the amount in euros to an account at Gazprombank. The “Rheinische Post” reported about it first.
The payments are a positive signal in fears for Russian gas supplies. A few weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree requiring so-called “unfriendly states” to pay their energy bills to Russia in rubles. But that is exactly what the European sanctions do not allow for easily. Accordingly, European gas importers have long been unclear on how to pay for their energy without either breaching EU sanctions or violating Russian demands.
As a solution, there are now guidelines from the European Commission. They allow European companies to transfer money in euros to accounts at Russia’s Gazprombank. The bank converts this money into rubles, and then transfers it to the actual business account.
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Not all gas importers pay their bills to Russia on the same day. Accordingly, other companies have probably already paid energy bills to Russia in euros. At Uniper and RWE, however, the payment was due at the end of May. This was a particular focus, as Uniper is the largest German importer of gas from Russia.
Concerns about the gas supply stop remain
Uniper’s gas midstream business comprises a portfolio of around 370 terawatt hours (TWh) of long-term gas supply contracts, around 200 TWh of which come from Russia. RWE, on the other hand, had signed a long-term contract with Gazprom to supply just 15 TWh of natural gas by 2023.
>> Read here: How exactly the payment solution in the ruble dispute looks like
It is always questionable whether Russia will accept gas payments from individual companies in the West: On Wednesday, the Russian energy giant Gazprom turned off the gas supply to the Danish supplier Orsted and Shell Energy Europe. Bulgaria, Poland, Finland and the Netherlands are already cut off from Russian gas. This is fueling concerns that there could also be a gas supply stop in Germany, for which the country would be ill-prepared.
In Germany it is still unclear how exactly the natural gas would be distributed in the event of an acute bottleneck. The Federal Network Agency has asked companies that need gas about their needs, but according to its own statements it has not yet been able to adequately evaluate the results of the survey. A sudden gas delivery stop should therefore cause chaos.
More: You can read all current developments on the subject of the Ukraine war and gas deliveries in our news blog
