According to the changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation, starting from April 1, 2022, settlements for natural gas supplies made after April 1, 2022 in accordance with the foreign trade agreements of PJSC “Gazprom” for the supply of natural gas abroad (to a number of countries) shall be made only in Russian rubles.
Assessing the compliance of the said change of the settlement procedure with the previously established sanction regime, the first impression is that such settlement procedure - in Russian rubles - does not formally violate the sanction regime and is possible. At present, Latvijas Gāze continues to analyze in depth the change in the proposed settlement method both from the legal point of view and from the point of view of the Group's business interests.
JSC “Latvijas Gāze” Chairman of the Board Aigars Kalvītis “we would like to emphasize that the amount of natural gas reserves of JSC Latvijas Gāze in the natural gas storage facility is sufficient to fulfill its contractual obligations to households and other customers by supplying the natural gas pumped into the storage facility. The decision not to pump gas through pipelines in April was taken in view of the historically high natural gas prices in April, which would lead to disproportionately high natural gas sales prices to our customers and make such offers uncompetitive.”
As before - JSC “Latvijas Gāze” continues to supply natural gas to households and other customers in accordance with the obligations of the concluded contracts and within the terms stipulated in the contract and is fully prepared to do so below.
On the JSC “Latvijas Gāze”
Latvijas Gāze is one of the leaders of the Baltic energy industry. The goal is to consolidate the leading position of the Latvijas Gāze Group in the Latvian and Baltic energy market by becoming the customers’ first choice among natural gas suppliers and providing the most reliable natural gas supply for the entire region.
The wholesale and sale of natural gas to business customers is carried out in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Following the opening of the Finnish gas market on January 1, 2020, Latvijas Gāze has successfully started natural gas trading in Finland as well. In the household segment, Latvijas Gāze is the biggest and most prominent natural gas trader in Latvia.
After Latvia regained its independence in 1991, a joint state-owned company “Latvijas Gāze” was established by merging the Latvian gas infrastructure and institutions. The privatisation of the company was commenced in 1997 and completed in 2002. Since February 15, 1999, the shares of the JSC “Latvijas Gāze” have been quoted on the Nasdaq Riga stock exchange. Taking into account the requirements of the European Union for the establishment of the natural gas market and the expiry of the privatisation agreement between the state and the shareholders of Latvijas Gāze, the unified transmission and storage operator JSC “Conexus Baltic Grid” was separated from Latvijas Gāze in early 2017, followed by the separation of the distribution system operator JSC “Gaso” on December 1, 2017.