Vera Eckert & Christoph Steitz

FRANKFURT (Reuters – Uniper considers Russian gas flow into Germany secure for the time being, despite a halting of supplies to Poland/Bulgaria. Transit volumes going elsewhere would remain unaffected. This was according to Germany’s largest importer.

Gazprom, Russia’s energy giant (MCX) stated earlier that it had stopped gas supply to two European countries as part of its harshest response to Western sanctions against Moscow following its invasion in Ukraine.

Polish state-owned PGNiG said that Gazprom has cut its supply.

Gazprom and the counterpart are making a deal. After presenting preliminary results for the first quarter, Uniper’s Chief commercial Officer Niek den Hollander said that it would not affect Poland’s transit of volumetrics.

He said, “So anybody who is taking, for example, in Germany could theoretically still use that route through Yamal pipeline.” We believe it is a similar case for Bulgaria.

Uniper confirmed that it expects to be able pay long-term gas contracts in accordance with a Moscow scheme. This requires payments to be made only in Russian rubles.

Tiina Tuomela, Uniper Finance chief of finance said that she believes the modification to the payment process is compliant with sanctions law so payments can be made. This statement was in line with the European Commission’s last week assessment.

Uniper had used a method that allowed Euro payments, which were then turned to Russian roubles via Gaprombank.

Uniper shares dropped more than 5% as it announced a preliminary 3Billion Euro ($3.2Billion) net loss in the first quarter. This is due to impairment charges for its Russian unit Unipro as well as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was suspended.

($1 = 0.9420 euros)