Polish and
Russian government officials, after nearly two years of talks, Friday signed an
amended agreement that boosts deliveries of natural gas from Russia to Poland.
Russia's OAO Gazprom
will gradually increase supplies to Poland, which in October faced an
imminent threat of shortages after losing a supply deal with a Gazprom-linked
trader.
The new agreement was signed in Warsaw by Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak,
who holds the economy portfolio, and Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Igor
Sechin. Under the contract, Gazprom
will supply Polish gas firm PGNiG SA until 2022 and will continue to pump gas
through Poland
to other European consumers until 2019.
Gazprom
PGNiG Friday signed an appendix to its previous gas supplies contract,
conforming with the government agreement.
In line with the new amended contract between the companies, Gazprom
will supply 9.03 billion cubic meters to Poland in 2010, 9.77 billion cubic
meters in 2011, and 10.24 billion cubic meters a year from 2012 to 2022, PGNiG
said in a statement.
The figures are provided in accordance with Polish norms.
Poland experienced a
shortfall in gas supplies from the east as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian
gas conflict in the beginning of 2009 when Gazprom-linked
gas trader RosUkrEnergo lost access to its gas sources and stopped delivering
to Poland via Ukraine. RosUkrEnergo
at one time supplied Poland
with over two billion cubic meters of natural gas a year.
Poland
currently consumes some 14 bcm of gas annually and projects that its demand
will increase to some 18 bcm by 2015, driven chiefly by increased use of gas
for electricity generation. Currently relying on Russia
as its main supplier of natural gas, Poland
is working on diversifying its gas supply routes, mainly using interconnectors
with European Union neighbors and a liquefied natural gas terminal on the BalticCoast.
Commercial companies are also involved in exploration work on Poland's shale gas potential that could make Poland fully
supplied with gas from its own gas fields. Results of test drills are expected
over the next few years.
The Polish and Russian governments also changed the rules for operating the
Polish stretch of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, owned by a joint venture
between Gazprom
and PGNiG.
To comply with EU rules on third-party access to gas pipeline infrastructure,
Polish state-owned pipelines operator Gaz-System was made the operator of the
pipeline. European Commission objections to the earlier setup, when Gazprom
and PGNiG were the exclusive users of the pipeline, earlier prolonged
Polish-Russian negotiations over the amended contract.
EuRoPol Gaz, the Gazprom-PGNiG
joint venture that owns the pipeline, will be obliged to report any spare
capacities to Gaz-System, which will be able to offer them on the market,
EuRoPol Gaz's Chief Executive Miroslaw Dobrut said on television channel TVN
CNBC earlier this week.
The pipeline is fully used at present and there are "brief moments"
when spare capacities appear, he added. The European Commission said earlier in
October it hadn't had a chance to review the agreement between the pipeline's
owner and the state-owned infrastructure firm. The companies said the details
of their agreement were confidential and the European Commission wasn't
entitled to gain access to them.
Gazprom
also agreed to give Poland
a discount on certain volumes of gas in 2010-2014. PGNiG estimates the discount
at $200 million-$250 million in the period and said the structure of the
discount wouldn't be disclosed.
PGNiG estimates the value of its agreement with Gazprom
at 8.5 billion zlotys ($2.95 billion) a year.