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18.10.2010 13:15- Alexander Medvedev
© Gazprom
Reuters reports that Russia and Poland have agreed a new natural gas supply deal conforming to EU rules. According to the report, this will ease worries that Europe, which takes gas through the Polish pipeline, might face shortages during the coming winter. An agreement on increasing Russian gas delivery to Poland and its transit to Germany through the Yamal pipeline was negotiated last year but was not signed due to worries that it was incompatible with EU laws, Reuters reminds.
“The EU delegation participated in the talks and did not raise any objections to the governmental agreement,” Joanna Strzelec-Lobodzinska, Poland's Deputy Economy Minister, said in front of reporters in Moscow, cited by the news agency. Poland's current supply contract runs out next week.
Russian gas company Gazprom and Poland’s gas monopoly PGNiG will now work on details with Gazprom’s Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev, saying the contract would be finalised within two weeks. “What is left is to finalise corporate agreements regarding the functions of the operator of the Yamal-Europe project,” Medvedev said. Philip Lowe, the European Commission's director-general for energy, said the talks were “very constructive”.
The deal covers 10 billion cubic metres of Russian gas a year for Poland until 2037, as well as gas flowing onwards to the rest of Europe through the pipeline. The Commission has said the deal must respect EU rules, which say that the pipeline must not be monopolised by PGNiG and Gazprom.
According to the Reuters report, Poland imports about 65-70 percent of its 14 billion cubic metres annual gas consumption from Russia, a dependence that worries many in the EU’s biggest ex-communist state.
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