Polish state-owned pipeline operator Gaz-System SA has received five
offers for its virtual reverse flow services on the Yamal-Europe natural gas
pipeline, the company said in a statement late Thursday, a sign companies are
looking to capitalize on a liberalization of Poland's gas market.
Poland has taken steps to liberalize its natural gas market in early September
when the country's energy regulator URE approve a procedure enabling buyers of
Russian gas in Germany to sell it back to buyers in Poland.
Total requests exceed the pipeline's reverse flow capacity, which allows for
delivery of about 2.3 billion cubic meters per year at outlets in
Wloclawek
and
Lwowek, Gaz-System said.
Total requested capacity was 465 million cubic meters for 2011, 5.4 billion
cubic meters for 2012, 5.6 billion cubic meters for 2013, 5.6 billion cubic
meters for 2014, and 5.5 billion cubic meters for 2015, Gaz-System said.
The company did not identity the companies making the requests.
A joint venture between OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) and Polish gas monopoly PGNiG SA
(PGN.WA) owns the Polish section of the pipeline but ceded the operator function
to Gaz-System SA last year as part of the process of bringing
Poland
's gas
market in line with European Union rules.
The virtual reverse flow could occur between Mallnow, on the German-Polish
border, and two points in
Poland
's
interior, Lwowek and
Wloclawek
.
Poland
consumes 14 billion cubic meters of gas a year.