Uniper has opened K account at Gazprombank to pay for Russian gas -CEO

A person is pictured through a window above a Gazprombank branch in Moscow
A person is pictured through a window above a Gazprombank branch in Moscow July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo

FRANKFURT, May 18 (Reuters) - Uniper (UN01.DE), Germany's largest importer of Russian gas, has opened a special K account at Gazprombank (GZPRI.MM) to enable payments under a new scheme proposed by Moscow, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

"Uniper has opened a so-called K account at Gazprombank and has thus made the arrangements for a contractually compliant payment in euros to this account in accordance with the new payment mechanism," Klaus-Dieter Maubach said during the company's annual general meeting.

"We are in close exchange with the federal government on this procedure."

His comments come just days before German utilities will have to make payments under the new scheme, which has caused confusion among European gas buyers over whether adhering to the mechanism will breach sanctions.

Maubach said that Gazprom (GAZP.MM) continued to fulfil all contractual obligations and that the company, with which Uniper has long-term supply contracts until the middle of the next decade, remained a reliable supplier.

Between January and April, Uniper received 86 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas from Gazprom, Maubach said, virtually unchanged from the 85 TWh supplied over the same period last year.

Reporting by Christoph Steitz Editing by Madeline Chambers and Miranda Murray

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