MOSCOW—Gazprom insisted Friday that Europe honor commitments to pay in full for contracted gas volumes regardless of the amount used -- with the Russian gas producer reportedly claiming European countries owe $2.5 billion under those rules.
Under their take-or-pay contract with Gazprom, European customers must buy a fixed minimum amount of gas no matter how much of it they actually need -- or pay fines.
"Gazprom is not going to change the system of long-term contracts," Gazprom Export's contract and pricing chief Sergei Komlev said in a statement Friday. "The basic principles of the contracts, including the take-or-pay principle, remain inviolable. Our partners agree with such approach."
Komlev added, however, that the long-term contracts "provide certain flexibility, which we are currently discussing with our contractual parties." He didn't elaborate.
The comments followed a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week citing Gazprom officials as saying European customers should pay $2.5 billion for the gas they did not take.
Komlev said earlier this week that Gazprom could adjust its contracts with the Europeans to avoid imposing huge fines on them.
Gazprom's demand to abide by the take-or-pay philosophy was relaxed in the case of Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine, Gazprom's key transit country and major Eastern European customer, signed a take-or-pay deal in February following a dispute in January that left thousands of homes in Europe without heat for days.
But hit by a severe economic downturn, Ukraine has been paying for less gas this year than contracted.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier this year assured his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko that Russia would not use take-or-pay provisions to fine it.
