Poland continues purchasing Russian gas through supplies reversed from Germany - TASS

Poland continues purchasing Russian gas despite stating that it will not do so, Gazprom Spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov told reporters on Thursday, adding that as direct supplies from Russia were suspended due to the refusal to accept a new payment procedure Russian gas is reversed to Poland from Germany via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

"This week Poland has refused to pay for Russian gas supplies under a new procedure, in rubles. It was officially announced that Russian gas is no longer needed and it will not be purchased. However, in reality this is wrong. After suspension of direct supplies Poland purchases Russian gas, but now in Germany, from which it is reversed to Poland via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline," he said.

Reverse volumes roughly stand at 30 mln cubic meters per day, which almost sharply equals the requests contracted with Gazprom Export in previous days, Kupriyanov added.

TASS said earlier reverse gas supplies via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline from Germany to Poland added another 3.5% early on April 28 after climbing more than five-fold on the previous day. Gas pumping via the pipeline from Germany to Poland rose to 1.28 mln cubic meters per hour.

Gazprom said on April 27 it had fully suspended gas supplies to the Bulgarian company Bulgargaz and the Polish PGNiG due to their failure to pay in rubles in due time.