BCP Council is ‘reviewing contracts’ after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds with Russian-owned energy firm Gazprom.
Figures provided by data firm Tussell, show that BCP Council spent £384,087 through contracts with the firm between 2019 and 2021.
The largest annual spend was £167,799 which occurred in 2020.
The figures for BCP Council do not include the former Poole Borough Council, which spent £412,617 to be supplied by the energy firm over a four-year period.
A spokesperson for the council said: “BCP Council is deeply saddened by the invasion of Ukraine and hope there is an end to so much unnecessary suffering soon.
“In response to the crisis, BCP Council has been reviewing our contracts.
“BCP Council no longer has any direct contractual links with Gazprom, or any other Russian supply, although we do not necessarily know about the full supply chains of those we contract with.
“We are currently in the process of asking our contractors if there are any indirect links with Russian companies and markets.”
Poole Housing Partnership’s contract with Gazprom ended on 30 September 2021, and at that point gas contracts transferred to LASER, with gas being supplied by Total Gas and Power. BCP currently buys gas and electricity from Laser, which is owned by Kent County Council.
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In a statement to customers on Wednesday, February 2, Nigel Hartnup, Director of Energy at LASER, reassured us they had taken action to investigate any Russian links to our gas supplies.
He said: “We want to reassure you that your LASER gas contracts have no direct link with Russia. However, Russia does supply a large amount of gas into Europe and therefore we are in the process of asking our major Gas suppliers (TGP, Corona and SSE) if there are any indirect links within their supply chain. We will share their responses once we have received them.
“Please note with immediate effect, LASER has suspended Gazprom from our fixed price existing Gas framework and we will not be including them in future contracting opportunities. Gazprom are not part of our flexible gas or electricity supply frameworks.”
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