The Poland state-controlled natural gas group, PGNiG plans to terminate its current natural gas supply deal with Russian giant Gazprom when it expires at the end of 2022.
PGNiG which announced this in a market filing on Friday, said that the diversification of sources especially liquefied natural gas (LNG), the purchase of gas deposits in the North Sea, and the expansion of the pipeline grid meant that Poland’s supply was secure and would allow for the termination of the contract with Gazprom.
It is unclear whether the firm, which is a dominant market player in Poland, wants to discontinue purchases of the commodity from Gazprom altogether beyond 2022 or continue them but under different contractual conditions.
The Yamal contract has been criticized in Poland.
Due to the country’s long dependence on Russian natural gas, Poland were paying much more for the Russian commodity than richer but more diversified partners further west.
The Yamal contract, signed back in 1996, also included a provision that imposed a minimal amount of gas the country needed to buy each year.
Consequently, Poland has undertaken attempts to diversify its natural gas supply.
In recent years, it built an LNG terminal and launched LNG supplies from the U.S. and Qatar.
Poland also plans to link its natural gas grid with Danish and Norwegian grids via the Baltic Pipe project, expected to be operational near end 2022.
Poland has also been a vocal critic of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream two pipelines, which it sees as tools for increasing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas.
Countries such as Germany back the pipelines projects.
