The Executive Order sets forth special economic measures with regard to natural gas supplies in response to steps taken by the United States in league with other foreign states and international organisations, which are unfriendly and run counter to international law and are aimed at imposing restrictive measures on the citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities, in order to protect the national interests of the Russian Federation in accordance with federal laws On Special Economic Measures and Coercive Actions of December 30, 2006, On Security of December 28, 2010, and On Measures (Countermeasures) Against Unfriendly Actions of the United States and Other Foreign Countries of June 4, 2018.
Under the Executive Order, Gazprom and its affiliates may not perform, until October 1, 2023, their obligations to foreign entities linked to foreign countries undertaking unfriendly actions regarding the Russian Federation, or individuals controlled by said foreign entities, regardless of where they are domiciled or have their primary place of business:
to pay for deliveries of flammable natural gas and gas condensate produced at the Achimovsk reservoirs of the Urengoy oil and gas condensate field, if the payments are calculated based on flammable natural gas and gas condensate prices exceeding the price cap set by the Government of the Russian Federation;
to pay for deliveries of flammable natural gas produced at the Yuzhno-Russkoye field, if the payments are calculated based on flammable natural gas prices exceeding the price cap set by the Government of the Russian Federation;
to pay for services related to producing flammable natural gas and gas condensate at the Achimovsk reservoirs of the Urengoy oil and gas condensate field, if the payments for such services exceed the price cap set by the Government of the Russian Federation.
The prohibition covers, inter alia, obligations to Russian legal entities whose charter (equity) capital is owned by the said foreign entities, as well as obligations with due date after March 1, 2022, and shall not cover obligations under contracts executed as part of on-exchange trading.
The Government of the Russian Federation has been instructed to set, within 10 days, cap prices and payment amounts.
The Finance Ministry shall have the authority to issue official explanations on the application of this Executive Order.
The Executive Order shall enter into force on the day of its official publication.