"As of June 1, Gazprom stopped supplies to Denmark under the contract with Orsted and partially to Germany under the contract of Shell Energy Europe. The Russian gas monopoly took this step after the two companies rejected its demands to pay for gas in rubles.
This was announced by the companies.
The day before "Gazprom" announced that it would cease supplies to a number of "unfriendly" countries that refused to accept the "rubles for gas" payment scheme imposed by Moscow.
As of May 31 "Gazprom" completely stopped deliveries to Dutch gas trader GasTerra. Later the company announced that as of June 1 it would stop supplying gas to the Danish company Orsted and Shell Energy under a contract to supply gas to Germany because both companies failed to pay in rubles.
The move by the Russian gas giant is another response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, which escalated the economic battle with Brussels and pushed up gas prices in Europe.
The statements followed Monday's agreement by EU leaders to cut Russian oil imports to the European Union by 90 percent by the end of the year, the bloc's toughest response to the Ukraine invasion.
Orsted, which had previously said there was no immediate danger to gas supplies to Denmark, said Tuesday it would turn to the European gas market to fill the gap.
Moscow has already cut off natural gas supplies to Bulgaria, Poland and Finland, citing their refusal to pay in Russian rubles, a demand made in response to Western sanctions that have isolated Russia.
However, German, Italian and French companies said they would participate in the scheme to maintain supplies.
The contract between Gazprom Export and Shell Energy Europe Limited to supply gas to Germany provides for up to 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
