The CEO of Orlen has announced that his company will take over the Polish section of the Yamal gas pipeline.
The owner of the gas pipeline is EuRoPol Gaz, a company where 48 percent of shares is in the possession of PGNiG (Orlen), 4 percent is owned by Gas Trading (Orlen) and the remaining 48 percent belongs to Gazprom. However, Gazprom’s shares were placed under compulsory administration since November 2022 at the request of the Internal Security Agency as part of sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Orlen is to acquire the Russian shares, and thus become the complete owner of the Polish section of the Yamal gas pipeline stretching from the Belarusian border to Germany.
„We are ending Russian influence on the Polish gas transit system! Europol Gaz after the decision of the Ministry of Development and Technology (on the seizure of shares – ed. ) will become the owner of shares previously owned by PAO Gazprom, and the Orlen Group will take control of the transit gas pipeline system, ” Orlen President Daniel Obajtek said on Twitter. „Poland has been dependent on natural gas supplies from Russia for decades – as little as 10 years ago about 80% of imports of this raw material came from that direction. Since 2022, we have been completely independent of gas from Russia. Today’s decision is a step towards restoring full control over Poland’s strategic gas infrastructure,” he added.
The Operator of the transmission gas pipelines, including the transit gas pipeline system known as the Yamal gas pipeline owned by EuRoPol Gaz, is Gaz-System. Orlen submitted an application to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection for approval of the merger in the form of the acquisition of EuRoPol Gaz on the second day of October. It was approved on October 9.
Orlen / Wojciech Jakóbik