Poland Notifies Gazprom Of Plans To Terminate Gas Contract After 2022

Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) announced in a statement on Friday that it had informed Russian energy giant Gazprom of its plans to not renew the contract for purchasing Russian gas after it expires in 2022

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2019) Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) announced in a statement on Friday that it had informed Russian energy giant Gazprom of its plans to not renew the contract for purchasing Russian gas after it expires in 2022.

This decision to terminate the contract was announced in early September by PGNiG President Piotr Wozniak.

"Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA announces that on November 15th 2019, having obtained the required corporate approvals, it notified PAO Gazprom and OOO Gazprom Export of its intent to terminate the contract for purchase and sale of natural gas to the Republic of Poland, concluded on September 25th 1996 (the Yamal Contract), with effect from December 31st 2022," the statement said.

According to Wozniak, this move is in line with contractual arrangements and stems from the fact that Poland had over the past years "taken a number of important steps to diversify the sources of natural gas supply," meaning that it no longer needed of the Yamal contract.

PGNiG has recently signed several long-term contracts for purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, including a deal with US Venture Global LNG to purchase an additional 1.5 million tonnes of LNG annually. A 24-year contract with the US' Cheniere Marketing International provides that Poland will annually receive about 520,000 tonnes of LNG from 2019-2022 and 1.45 million tonnes from 2023-2042.