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EU Energy Chief `Optimistic' on Polish-Russian Gas Deal Extending Supplies
European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said he was “optimistic” that Poland and Russia would adjust a draft gas-supply contract to ensure its compatibility with the bloc’s regulation.
Oettinger met today with Polish Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak to discuss the contract, which will extend Russian gas supplies to the central European country. The commission, the regulatory arm of the 27-nation bloc, said last month that it was assessing the compatibility of the deal with EU law, including issues related to the pipeline’s management, access to third parties and tariffs.
“There is a good chance for reaching a common position between Poland, Russia and the European regulation,” Oettinger told reporters after the meeting. “There are some last questions between the Polish and Russian partners. We have trust in both partners.”
The contract, which increases annual deliveries to as much as 10.2 billion cubic meters from about 7.4 billion cubic meters and extends a previous deal by 15 years to 2037, was signed by OAO Gazprom and Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA on Jan. 27. Both governments have yet to initial it.
The deal will help Poland, which gets about two-thirds of its gas from Russia, to avoid supply reductions similar to those that threatened its chemical and oil refining industries when temperatures fell earlier this year.
‘Good Solution’
“I hope that with the engagement of the commission and Commissioner Oettinger it will be possible to find a good solution, satisfying for the EU, Poland and Russia,” Pawlak told reporters after the meeting. “We have agreed common elements that we will present from the EU and Polish side and in the nearest time we will be conducting an intensive dialogue with the Russian partners.”
Poland, Russia and their state-controlled gas companies have been seeking a new contract since early last year, when trader RosUkrEnergo AG, 50 percent-owned by Gazprom, halted deliveries following a dispute between Russia and Ukraine. Under a contract that ran out on Dec. 31, RosUkrEnergo was supposed to deliver 2.3 billion cubic meters of gas to Poland in 2009.
Gazprom will keep using the Yamal pipeline, which runs across Poland to Germany, through 2045, according to the agreement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net; Maciej Martewicz in Warsaw at mmartewicz@bloomberg.net
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