Imports of liquid natural gas (LNG) to Finland from Russia's Gazprom Export will end at 7am on Saturday, the Finnish state-owned firm Gasum has announced.
Gasum CEO, Mika Wiljanen, explained the situation in a statement issued on Friday afternoon.
"It is highly regrettable that natural gas supplies under our supply contract will now be halted. However, we have been carefully preparing for this situation and provided that there will be no disruptions in the gas transmission network, we will be able to supply all our customers with gas in the coming months," Wiljanen said.
In a separate announcement on Friday, the Finnish government said it had agreed a 10-year charter with US-based Excelerate Energy for a floating storage and regasification (FSRU) vessel that will help to replace the Russian gas supply.
"The LNG terminal will make it possible for us to break free from Russian gas," Finance Minister Annika Saarikko (Cen) said.
Gasum refused to pay in rubles
Earlier this week, Gasum announced that it was refusing to pay Gazprom Export in rubles as the Russian company requested at the beginning of last month.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said that paying for Russian gas in rubles could violate sanctions against Russia.
Gasum said that Gazprom Export notified the company about when the gas supply would end.
Going forward, Gasum said it plans to supply customers from other sources via the Balticconector pipeline.
Earlier this week, Gassum announced that it refused to pay Gazprom Export in rubles as the Russian company started demanding at the beginning of last month.
The Finnish firm also noted at that stage there were other "significant" issues of dispute surrounding other claims under the contract agreement between the two companies.
The company said operation of gas filling stations in Finland would continue normally.