Spain's Naturgy wants to talk with Yamal about the impact of EU's Russian Gas Ban

A senior official at Naturgy said that the company will be holding talks with Russia's Yamal Gas in order to declare force majeure on their long-term contract. This is due to an EU ban on Russian gas imports.

In 2013, the Spanish power utility Yamal signed a long-term agreement to import around 3 billion cubic meters of Russian LNG every year.

The talks are imminent, but they haven't started yet. This was the message from Manuel Garcia Cobaleda Naturgy's General Counsel, in a conference with journalists after the company's results.

Garcia Cobaleda referred to the previous comments of EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen and said that the ban was "force majeure", an unforeseeable event which can release companies from contracts.

He said that this obliges parties to "make a concerted effort to minimize the resulting damages."

He said that "in order to comply with the agreement and be able to invoke force majore, these discussions between 'the 'two parties need to occur; there is time until January 2027 to do this."

According to a Wednesday presentation, Naturgy, as part of its effort to'secure supply,' is looking at 'new deals for up to 2 bcm gas. Reporting by Pietro Lombardi. Mark Potter (Editing)

(source: Reuters)