(Finance) – The billing in rubles of billions of euros of natural gas exports applies to Gazpromthe state-controlled Russian energy giant, while not about Novatek, the country’s largest independent gas company. This was stated today by the spokesman of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov, underlining that Novatek is a private company and “there can be no direct order there”. “President Putin has not differentiated in any way what type of gas is meant”, he added, thus highlighting that there is no differentiation of the provision with regard to supplies via pipeline or LNG.
“This is a directive for Gazprom,” Peskov said, as reported by TASS. “This is an international company of which the state is the main owner, so such a directive was given to Gazprom. The president said nothing about it. Novatek “. To a question whether Russia will continue to supply gas to the EU if European countries refuse to pay in rubles, the spokesman recalled that “there is an instruction in Gazprom from the president of the Russian Federation to accept payments in rubles”.
“Within a week, or rather within the remaining four days, Gazprom will have to implement the contracts and develop a transparent and understandable system on how to do it from a technical and logistical point of view. This information will be sent to buyers of Gazprom products and then we’ll see. We proceed according to the current instructions of the head of state, “Peskov concluded.