Gas: Russia’s Gazprom will suspend supplies to Engie from Thursday

orange with media services, published Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 10:28 p.m

The Russian giant accuses the French group of not having paid for all gas deliveries in July.

Moscow turns off the water tap. Russian energy giant Gazprom announced Tuesday, August 30, that it would completely halt its gas supplies to French group Engie, which it accuses of not paying in full for supplies made in July.

“Gazprom Export has informed Engie of a complete cessation of gas supplies from September 1, 2022 pending full receipt of the financial amounts due for the supplies,” the Russian group stated in a press release published on its Telegram account on Tuesday evening.

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, who wants to reassure Engie customers, said on the channel TMC that the French group had “found other sources of supply” without specifying which ones.

She also assured that households would not be affected by gas outages this winter. “The cuts, they do not affect households (…) we will not cut gas in French households, but cuts could be made at our companies, the big consumers.‘ said the Prime Minister

According to a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of March, Gazprom specifies that “it is forbidden to supply more natural gas to a foreign buyer if the buyer has not paid in full within the period specified in the contract”. However, Gazprom claims it has not yet received all the amounts due for deliveries in July as of Tuesday evening.

Engie, contacted byAFP Tuesday evening declined to comment on Gazprom’s announcement. On Tuesday morning, Engie announced that Gazprom had informed it about additional and immediate cuts in its gas supplies “due to a disagreement between the parties on the application of contracts.” The group recalled that it had already taken measures to be able to supply its customersalso in case of disruption of Gazprom flows.

Deliveries of Russian gas to Engie had already dropped significantly since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. In response to Western sanctions against Moscow to punish its offensive against Kyiv, Russia has repeatedly reduced gas supplies to heavily dependent Europe.