Poland accuses Russia of inflating gas prices
For many years, Poland has been buying gas from Gazprom for higher prices than it would have paid its European suppliers and, as a result, has suffered multibillion-dollar losses, said Peter Naimsky, the Polish government's chief representative on the development of energy infrastructure, at the 7th National Energy Summit held in Gdańsk, Radio Poland reported.
According to the official, from 2001–2018 alone, Poland lost from 50 billion to 100 billion zlotys (at the current exchange rate from € 11.7 billion to € 23.35 billion) due to the lack of diversification of raw material sources.
“Poland suffered losses because gas supplied by a Russian monopoly is more expensive than gas supplied from Europe,” explained Naimsky.
Previously, Naimsky had estimated that from 2010-2017, Poland had lost $ 400 million in an unfavorable contract with Gazprom for gas transit through Polish territory.
During the summit in Gdańsk, Naimsky said that Poland should strive to obtain gas from various sources. The Baltic Pipe gas pipeline connecting Poland with the Norwegian gas transmission network, expanding the LNG terminal in Świnoujście and building a new terminal in Gdańsk would facilitate the process.
Completing these projects will allow Poland to diversify its gas sources, solving the problem of dependence on a Russian supplier and also reducing the cost of importing this raw material,” said Naimsky.
Poland is one of the largest buyers of Russian gas in Eastern and Central Europe. In 2018, Gazprom supplied 9.86 billion cubic meters to the country which equals about a quarter of the total gas supplied to the region. The contract for the supply of Russian gas to Poland is valid until 2022. Naimsky has stated that Warsaw will not renew the contract.