On Thursday, Gazprom Export suspended all gas supplies under a contract with French energy company Engie after the company failed to pay the full cost of gas supplies for the month of July.
On Tuesday, Gazprom Export said that it had not received full payment from the French company for gas supplied under existing contracts in July by the end of the working day on August 30 within the established period. For this reason, the Russian company notified the holding company “INGE” of the complete suspension of gas supplies from September 1 until the receipt of funds for the supplied gas in full.
ENGIE has the largest gas transmission network in Europe and is the largest underground gas storage operator in Europe in terms of capacity. The company is a shareholder of Nord Stream AG, operator of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, as well as a European investor in the Nord Stream 2 project.
Engy reported on Aug. 30 that Russian gas supplies had previously fallen to 1.5 TWh per month, and the drop in supplies was due to “differences between the two parties regarding the execution of contracts.”
According to Emmanuel Fargon, head of the French Energy Market Regulatory Commission, France’s gas storage facilities are 91 percent full. According to him, France will go through this winter without gas from Russia if there is no cold weather.
Russian natural gas has been supplied to France for 45 years. During this time, total exports exceeded 427 billion cubic meters. Engi, Gazprom’s main partner in the French market, currently has five long-term contracts to import Russian gas.
Source: TASS