(Bloomberg) -- Gazprom PJSC is seeing increasing numbers of large clients in the U.K. step away, with companies refusing to sign contracts with its energy supply businesses.

Gazprom Marketing & Trading Retail Ltd, which trades as Gazprom Energy, provides more than a fifth of U.K. commercial gas, including to factories and offices. Several large users of energy have said they want to end their relationship with the Russian company after the invasion of Ukraine. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, has asked the National Health Service units that are supplied by the company to cut their ties. 

Firms across Europe are seeking to cut ties with Russia with energy purchases from the increasingly isolated country attracting intense scrutiny. Shell Plc bought a cargo of Russian oil recently to ensure supplies, but the criticism was so severe that on Tuesday it apologized for the purchase. Gazprom Energy doesn’t supply its U.K. customers with just Russian gas.

Gazprom Energy declined to comment.

Several members of the U.K.’s Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents chemicals, steel, and other industrial companies, have issued notices to Gazprom saying they won’t renew their energy supply contracts, according to group chair Richard Leese. 

“Businesses have started to initiate those conversations with Gazprom for moral reasons or they fear the financial impact of staying,” Leese said in an interview. 

British insurance company Admiral Group Plc, plans to end its contract with the supplier, according to a person familiar with the matter who didn’t want to be named discussing private information. The company declined to comment.

Read More: U.K. Cutoff of Gazprom Would Hit Companies With Price Surge

If Gazprom Energy were to struggle with fewer clients and potentially lower revenues, there is the possibility it could run into financial difficulty.

“The position with respect to Gazprom is that the U.K. company is separate from the parent,” Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said in response to a question in Parliament on Wednesday. “But of course, should anything happen to Gazprom, just as with any other shipper or supplier of energy, we would take the appropriate steps if anything untoward should happen to that distributor and supplier.”

Gazprom Energy doesn’t supply domestic customers so its clients aren’t protected by Ofgem’s price cap. Businesses signing fresh contracts now could expect their bills to jump by several multiples compared to a year ago, as gas prices trade at nearly nine times higher than this time last year. 

The government itself has been cutting ties to the supplier, even though sanctions don’t require it. NHS units have been asked to end their relationships with Gazprom Energy as soon as they can, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Tuesday in comments reported by the Press Association. 

Since 2012, government bodies have signed over 100 contracts with Gazprom Energy with a combined value of 127 million pounds, according to public sector data platform Tussell. That predominantly includes housing associations, universities and local councils.

The supplier’s parent company, trading house Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd., has been suspended from a European energy trading federation as longstanding partners refuse to trade with it. Last week, London landlord British Land Co said it would end its contract with the company as soon as legally possible.

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