Major Asian buyers of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) said they had yet to receive requests to pay for supplies in Russian rubles after a senior manager at gas producer Gazprom floated a proposal to expand the payment scheme.
The proposal came just days after Russia moved to seize operations of the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant in retaliation for Western sanctions, raising supply concerns for top buyers such as Japan and South Korea.
Russia has already demanded ruble payments from European oil and gas buyers as its economy, cut off from the global financial system, faces the gravest crisis since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.