Finland’s natural gas supply will be turned off on Saturday morning, according to Finnish and Russian energy providers, after the Nordic country refused to pay Gazprom in rubles.
Gasum CEO Mika Wiljanen issued a statement saying, “It is terribly regretful that natural gas shipments under our supply contract will now be interrupted.”
“However, we have meticulously prepared for this situation,” Wiljanen said, adding that “there will be no problems in the gas transmission network.”
According to Gasum, the supply contract will cease on Saturday at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT).
Gazprom Export, the exporting arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom, announced that it had not received payment for gas delivered in April and that supply will be halted as of Saturday.
[embedpost slug=”china-linked-twisted-panda-was-discovered-snooping-on-russian-defence-research-and-development/”]
Gazprom Export sought in April that future payments under the supply contract be made in rubles rather than euros, but Gasum refused and said on Tuesday that it would pursue the matter in arbitration.
Gazprom Export stated that it will defend its interests in court using all “tools at its disposal.”
When asked about the situation, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov pointed reporters to Gazprom for “details,” but said that “nobody is going to deliver anything for free.”
Natural gas accounts for around 8% of Finland’s energy consumption, with the majority of it coming from Russia.
In an effort to reduce the dangers of relying on Russian energy exports, the Finnish government said earlier on Friday that it had inked a 10-year leasing agreement with US-based Excelerate Energy for an LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal ship.
“We will be able to break free from Russian gas thanks to the LNG terminal,” Finance Minister Annika Saarikko told reporters.
After its energy firm RAO Nordic alleged payment arrears, Russia interrupted electricity shipments to Finland overnight on Sunday, albeit the gap was promptly filled.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and neighbouring Sweden violated their historical military non-alignment and asked for NATO membership this week.
Any application for NATO membership by Finland would be “a grave blunder with far-reaching ramifications,” according to Moscow.


















