Gas fired: Russia ups the ante in Poland
Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom called today for more talks with its Polish counterpart PGNiG in their dispute over transit fees on a major pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe.
Meanwhile, Russia’s environmental watchdog agency is preparing to probe a giant natural gas field owned by BP’s Russian joint venture, a top agency official said today.
Analysts have suggested that Kovykta could be the next foreign energy development to be taken over by Gazprom.
Stressing what it called Poland’s uncompromising approach to the dispute, Gazprom said its delegates to the board of EuRoPol Gaz, the joint venture company that owns the Polish stretch of the Yamal-Europe pipeline, “offered to continue the work on the questions mentioned in a format of bilateral consultations.”
Earlier in the week, PGNiG said Gazprom had warned it would withdraw its cooperation on all board issues until further notice in protest at PGNiG’s refusal to accept its request for lower transit tariffs. Gazprom denied making the threat and said it was not reducing its participation in the board.
The call for further talks came at the end of a statement that repeatedly criticised PGNiG, which it said had demonstrated “the lack of ... a constructive and compromising approach to resolving practically all key questions” – apparently an effort to keep discussions going while maintaining a tough stance.
The Gazprom statement came two days before German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Russian president Vladimir Putin for wide-ranging talks on relations between Russia and the European Union. Amid European concerns, Putin stressed today that Russia has been and intends to remain a reliable supplier of energy.
Merkel had sharply criticised Russia for not notifying Germany and other EU members of its intention to stop oil transit through Belarus at the start of the year, a decision which led to the temporary loss of over a million barrels a day in supplies to European refineries.
Gazprom said the tariffs requested by PGNiG, which it did not specify, included parameters that even the Polish regulator URE says are excessive.
It repeated its claim that PGNiG delegates to the EuRoPol board are violating the shareholder agreement, which stipulates that the consortium should not accumulate free cash without having a definite purpose for it.
Gazprom also said PGNiG delegates failed to show “the required understanding” of its efforts to secure an equal say in EuRoPol decisions, which it claimed it’s due under an intergovernmental agreement.
