Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 21 2022

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Poland terminates Yamal pipeline

agreement ahead of schedule

POLAND’S Climate and Environment Minister allows it to be used for reverse supplies of gas
Anna Moskwa announced on May 23 that her from Germany to Poland without interruption.”
country was terminating its inter-governmen- Moskwa’s announcement on Twitter is not
tal agreement (IGA) with Russia on natural gas exactly a surprise. The Polish government has
deliveries via the Yamal-Europe pipeline. already made it clear that it will not comply with
Moskwa made the decision public in a post Russia’s demand that Gazprom’s customers pay
on Twitter, saying: “Poland has repudiated for gas in rubles, and the country’s national oil
the international gas agreement from 1993 on and gas concern PGNiG told its Russian sup-
Yamal.” She indicated that Warsaw was stepping plier in 2019 that it did not intend to extend the
away from the deal, which is not officially due to Yamal-Europe contract beyond 2022.
expire until the end of 2022, immediately. Meanwhile, Poland’s Secretary of State for
She also stated in the same Twitter post that Energy Security Piotr Naimski noted during a
Poland had taken this step in response to Russia’s public radio broadcast on May 23 that the gov-
invasion of Ukraine. “Russia’s aggression against ernment had adopted a resolution on the ter-
Ukraine has confirmed the accuracy of the Pol- mination of that contract on May 13. Warsaw
ish government’s determination to become intends to send Moscow an official notification
completely independent from Russian gas. We of its decision today, he said.
always knew that Gazprom was not a reliable Poland has been importing about 10bn cubic
partner,” she wrote. metres per year of Russian gas via the Yamal-Eu-
The minister elaborated on these points later rope pipeline. This is enough to cover half of the
on May 23, telling PAP newswire that Warsaw country’s demand, which currently stands at
viewed termination of the Yamal contract as around 20 bcm per year. ™
a logical response to the fact that Gazprom,
Russia’s state-owned gas giant, had halted ship-
ments to Poland in April. She also stressed,
though, that Poland’s decision would not affect
shipments through the Yamal-Europe pipeline
to Germany, saying that the Polish company
Gaz-System that operates the Polish section of
the link would continue to keep the gas flowing.
This will allow for Poland to continue using
the Yamal-Europe system for reverse-flow ship-
ments from Germany, she added. “Inter-gov-
ernmental agreements with Russia that are
breaching European law should not be in place
any longer,” she told PAP. “The Yamal pipeline is
functioning in line with the European law, which Poland has been importing 10 bcm per year of gas via the Yamal pipe (File Image)

Rosneft, Gazprom Neft generate

new business for Sovcomflot

RUSSIA’S state-owned tanker operator Sovcom- mid-sized crude oil carriers, saw a large part of
flot (SCF) is still attracting plenty of business, its fleet go underutilised in the first two months
with a surge of recent bookings from Russian after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. This trend
oil producers partially making up for the loss of was set to intensify once international insurers
Western clients in the wake of the invasion of stopped providing protection and indemnity
Ukraine, according to a report from Bloomberg. (P&I) insurance for the Russian tankers, citing
SCF, the owner of the world’s largest fleet of factors related to Western sanctions

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