Page 8 - EurOil Week 21 2022

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Poland terminates Yamal pipeline

agreement ahead of schedule

POLAND POLAND’S Climate and Environment Minister This will allow for Poland to continue
Anna Moskwa announced on May 23 that her using the Yamal-Europe system for reverse-
country was terminating its inter-governmen- flow shipments from Germany, she added.
tal agreement (IGA) with Russia on natural gas “Inter-governmental agreements with Russia
deliveries via the Yamal-Europe pipeline. that are breaching European law should not be
Moskwa made the decision public in a post in place any longer,” she told PAP. “The Yamal
on Twitter, saying: “Poland has repudiated pipeline is functioning in line with the Euro-
the international gas agreement from 1993 on pean law, which allows it to be used for reverse
Yamal.” She indicated that Warsaw was stepping supplies of gas from Germany to Poland with-
away from the deal, which is not officially due to out interruption.”
expire until the end of 2022, immediately. Moskwa’s announcement on Twitter is not
She also stated in the same Twitter post that exactly a surprise. The Polish government has
Poland had taken this step in response to Russia’s already made it clear that it will not comply with
invasion of Ukraine. “Russia’s aggression against Russia’s demand that Gazprom’s customers pay
Ukraine has confirmed the accuracy of the Pol- for gas in rubles, and the country’s national oil
ish government’s determination to become com- and gas concern PGNiG told its Russian sup-
pletely independent from Russian gas. We always plier in 2019 that it did not intend to extend the
knew that Gazprom was not a reliable partner,” Yamal-Europe contract beyond 2022.
she wrote. Meanwhile, Poland’s Secretary of State for
The minister elaborated on these points later Energy Security Piotr Naimski noted during a
on May 23, telling PAP newswire that Warsaw public radio broadcast on May 23 that the gov-
viewed termination of the Yamal contract as a ernment had adopted a resolution on the ter-
logical response to the fact that Gazprom, Rus- mination of that contract on May 13. Warsaw
sia’s state-owned gas giant, had halted shipments intends to send Moscow an official notification
to Poland in April. She also stressed, though, that of its decision today, he said.
Poland’s decision would not affect shipments Poland has been importing about 10bn cubic
through the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany, metres per year of Russian gas via the Yamal-Eu-
saying that the Polish company Gaz-System that rope pipeline. This is enough to cover half of the
operates the Polish section of the link would con- country’s demand, which currently stands at
tinue to keep the gas flowing. around 20 bcm per year. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 21 27•May•2022