Poland Wants Another Price Cut From Gazprom

Poland wants another cut in the price of natural gas it buys from Russia , a Polish deputy prime minister said on Monday as gas firms from the two countries began talks.

State-controlled PGNiG SA (PGN.WA) begins talks on Monday with Russia 's OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) on the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which they co-own, PGNiG said in a statement on Sunday. The goal of the meeting is also to "discuss conditions of gas deliveries to Poland ," it said.

Due to work done over the past few years on building new supply routes, Poland has an increasingly strong position in talks with Gazprom, Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski said on Monday.

"The time is coming to talk with Gazprom about renegotiating gas prices," he was quoted as saying by state-owned newswire PAP. "The market is slowly becoming the buyer's market, not the supplier's."

In November 2012, Gazprom gave PGNiG a retroactive discount of more than 10% for the gas the Polish company is buying. Still, the country has complained it continues to pay a relatively high price. PGNiG buys most of its gas from Russia .

Poland has over the past few years built several small pipelines connecting it with Germany and the Czech Republic . It is also building a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Baltic coast to be able to import LNG from other directions. Several companies are drilling in the country in search for shale gas.

Mr. Piechocinski said Monday Poland, which over the past few years experienced shortages during winter seasons when Russia cut supplies to transit countries Belarus and Ukraine, will have "complete security" of supplies in 2018. At that point, "of course if Russian gas remains the cheapest, we'll keep using it," Mr. Piechocinski said.