As of today, the Dutch gas trader GasTerra will no longer receive gas from the Russian Gazprom. The company doesn’t want to pay the bill the way the Russians want it to. This concerns approximately 2 billion cubic meters of gas, which has meanwhile been purchased elsewhere. However, there is now even more pressure on the gas boiler.
GasTerra would no longer do business with Gazprom from October in any case. The gas trader is phasing out all its activities in anticipation of the definitive closure of the Groningen gas field. “Ending the relationship with Gazprom is part of that,” said a spokesman for the gas trader.
The relationship is now ending a few months earlier. That is a choice made by GasTerra. It is possible to pay bills in euros via a construction rigged by the Russians. These are then converted into rubles by the Gazprom Bank. To do this, two accounts must be opened.
The European Commission has no problem with this as long as the customer informs him after the payment in euros that the transaction has been completed for him. GasTerra does not want to participate in this.
The gas trader believes that this method carries the risk of violating the sanctions. “But also because there are too many financial and operational risks associated with the required payment route.” The company considers the risk to be too great.
Losing Groningen also plays a role
GasTerra would still buy about 2 billion cubic meters of gas from the Russians between now and October 1. That is about 6 percent of the average annual use in the Netherlands. “The market has to absorb that now,” said the spokesperson. “We have also succeeded in replacing the vast majority of the gas from Groningen that is no longer produced.”
Because GasTerra has now purchased this gas elsewhere, it has been withdrawn from the market. And the market prices of gas have been rising for months. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there were remarkable movements in the gas pipelines between Russia and the West.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, prices have continued to rise. With Gazprom warning traders left and right for not wanting to pay in rubles, the pressure is mounting even more. The disappearance of Groningen also plays a role on the gas world stage.
Everyone is now looking for gas and fishing in the same gas pond. What is also very important in Europe and also in the Netherlands is what kind of winter we get. “That is a relevant factor in the question,” says the GasTerra spokesperson. And nobody can (yet) predict what the weather will be like.