At least 20 European companies have already made arrangements to pay for Russian gas using the mechanism Russia has established by which they pay in euros that are then converted to rubles in accounts in Gazprombank. Even more companies are said to be preparing the paperwork to be able to do the same, Bloomberg reported last week. Unable to agree on a unified policy, the European Commission has only been able to issue “guidance” for companies that want to keep purchasing Russian gas, but there is nothing in writing. As Bloomberg put it today, the policy is therefore “open to interpretation.”
On May 14, as Bloomberg reported May 16, the EC first issued updated recommendations indicating that companies could pay in dollars or euros, and once that transaction were completed, could declare that their contractual obligations were fulfilled. Bloomberg reported that this guidance doesn’t prevent companies from opening an account at Gazprombank and will allow them to purchase gas without contravening European sanctions. But then, today, EC spokesman Eric Mamer offered new guidance, stipulating that companies that open accounts in anything other than “the currency of the contract” with Gazprombank—that is, if they were to open a ruble account—and then state that they have met their contractual obligations, will be contravening existing sanctions.
