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PL / EN
Polish Briefing 14 March, 2018 9:00 am   
COMMENTS: Mateusz Gibała

Polish Briefing: Poland will invest expertise in Ukraine. The EU appeals to Gazprom to respect the agreements

What goes on in Poland on the 14th of March.

Gaz-System will invest expertise in the gas pipeline in Ukraine, not money

Gaz-System will not invest in the gas pipeline in Ukraine. It will send experts who will help reform their management.

During the Europe-Ukraine Forum under the patronage of BiznesAlert.pl a panel was held devoted to overcoming the dominance of major gas suppliers to Central and Eastern Europe. During the meeting, the government plenipotentiary for strategic energy infrastructure Piotr Naimski revealed that although the Polish Gaz-System is not interested in investing in Ukrainian gas pipelines, it will support Ukrainian work for the ownership separation in the gas sector.

– Gaz-System does not have an investment strategy in the gas pipelines in Ukraine. It applied as a strategic partner with the aid of the unbundling process, i.e. disconnection of transmission and distribution in the gas transmission system – said Naimski. In this way, he confirmed the participation of Gaz-System in the procedure of collecting partners for the modernization of gas pipelines in Ukraine. He also denied the information that suggested that Gaz-System would become a shareholder in the company managing the Ukrainian gas pipelines after the reform, ie the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine.

– The meeting in this matter has already taken place. Among the seven companies that came to help the Ukrainian side, no one is considering capital entry at this stage. The experience of Gaz-System in unbundling and the implementation of European regulations in the Polish gas sector may be helpful for Ukrainians – summed up BiznesAlert.pl. Gaz-System was created as an independent operator of gas transport pipelines in Poland as part of the liberalization of the Polish gas market in line with EU regulations.

The EU appeals to Gazprom to respect the agreements

High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security of the European Union Federica Mogherini visited Kiev, where she spoke with Prime Minister Volodymyr Hrojsman. The main topic of the meeting was gas supplies from Russia to Ukraine.

Arbitration ordered Gazprom to pay a $ 4,63 billion penalty for gas that was not carried out by the Ukrainian pipelines despite the ship or pay clause specifying the minimum volume of transmission in the contract. In the delivery contract case, the court ruled that Naftogaz is to receive at least 4 billion cubic meters from Gazprom natural gas annually. Despite the forward payment, the Russians did not start deliveries and returned the money.

Mogherini appealed to Gazprom for full implementation of its obligations under gas contracts. Despite the rulings of the arbitration court in favor of the Ukrainian Naftogaz, the Russian company did not subordinate to them and did not start deliveries on the Dnieper from the first of March. It caused the necessity of temporary introduction of crisis mechanisms that had an impact on Ukrainian society.