Russian gas keeps flowing to Europe despite Putin's deadline to pay in roubles

[MOSCOW] Russian gas was still flowing to Europe on Friday despite a deadline set by President Vladimir Putin to cut it off unless customers start paying in roubles, Moscow's strongest threat to retaliate for sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Putin signed an order setting a Friday deadline for buyers from "unfriendly" countries to pay for gas using roubles or be cut off, a demand Western customers have rejected as an attempt to rewrite contracts that call for payment in euros. Germany, the biggest buyer, called it "blackmail", and had warned this week of a potential emergency if supplies were curtailed.

But there was no sign on Friday of an immediate interruption. Flows remained steady through two of the three main pipelines bringing Russian gas into Europe - Nord Stream 1 across the Baltic Sea, and into Slovakia over Ukraine.

Flows through the other main route, the Yamal-Europe pipeline over Belarus, had reversed direction, now bringing gas from Germany to Poland, but this occurs occasionally and did not necessarily indicate a new policy.

Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas giant, said it was continuing to supply Europe via Ukraine in line with requests from consumers, with requests standing at 108.4 million cubic metres for Friday, down only fractionally from 109.5 mcm a day earlier.

A source had told Reuters that some contracts involved gas being delivered before payments were due, suggesting the taps might not be turned off immediately. REUTERS