Rouble-rousers

Russia was accused of heavy-handedness last week when it was reported that Gazprom wanted to force Poland to increase imports of its gas.

During negotiations between the Russian state-run energy giant and PGNiG, Gazprom demanded the Polish gas monopoly raise their intake of gas from 7.5 billion square meters annually to 10 billion. This would see an annual cost increase of $750 million (zł.2.6 billion).

The meeting between the pair was aimed at re-negotiating the terms of the Yamal contract - an agreement signed by Poland, Belarus and Russia in 1993 to allow construction of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany.

Former PGNiG president Andrzej Lipko told Rzeczpospolita that the proposal should not be surprising.
"Clearly, [the position is] one that the Russian side, once again, wants to benefit from. In other words, putting Poland in an unfavorable situation as an importer of gas."
The re-negotiation of talks between Russia and Poland were due to the January gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine. RosUkrEnergo - which supplies gas to Eastern Europe from Turkmenistan - was to supply Poland with 2.5 billion square meters of gas in 2009. As a result of the conflict, Poland has seen an 18 percent cut in gas provided by RosUkrEnergo.

Should PGNiG yield to the costly Russian demands, plans for a proposed gas pipeline between Poland and Denmark, as well as a separate LNG terminal - which together would reduce Poland's dependency on Russian supplies - would be severely jeopardized. Gaz-System, a subsidiary of PGNiG, estimates the cost of this project to be around E1 (zł.4.6) billion.

It was revealed last Friday that PGNiG and Gazprom had come to an agreement on a short-term gas contract until the end of this year. "I have spoken to Prime Minister Putin about gas ... the good news is that talks on short-term contract between PGNiG and Gazprom are finalized," PM Tusk announced.

Robert Szmigielski