An appeal to the International Arbitration Court of Stockholm and an official inquiry by the European Commission moved Russian national major Gazprom to give Polish energetic concern PGNiG a discount on gas supplies' contract. A tighter dependence of the EU on Russia's gas supplies could be the real reason why Moscow agreed with Warsaw's request
Between Poland and Russia contract's disputes ended in a peaceful way, but it's not yet clear what is the price Warsaw is really going to pay for Moscow's discount on gas supplies's contracts.
On Monday 11/5, Polish energetic concern PGNiG obtained from Russian national major Gazprom a 10% discount in gas supplies's contracts.
According to wpn info portal, Poland and Russia are going to negotiate new tariffs according to world gas spot prices, and no more to fix tariffs by bilateral political agreements.
The gas supplies contract's renegotiation with Russia is a quite important deal for Poland. Per year, Warsaw imports from Russia the 60% of its total national need: thanks to Gazprom's discount, Polish government will not increase the price for gas for the population as previously prevented.
Following the new agreement , PGNiG Polish concern revoked a judicial appeal against Gazprom, which has been presented at the International Arbitration Court of Stockholm on May 2012.
The Polish concern denounced the Russian national major of establishing unfair prices in the EU countries.
According to PGNiG argumentation, Gazprom imposed Poland a higher gas supplies's price than the one Russian national major agreed with Germany, France and other pro-Russian western european countries.
For the same reason, on September 2012 the European Commission started an official inquiry on Gazprom's contracts in Central-Eastern Europe.
Brussels accused the Russian major of establish unfair gas prices for Central-Eastern European countries, in order to block the creation of a common European energetic market, and punish several EU countries for their pro-european foreign policy.
As reported by Gazeta Wyborcza Polish newspaper, a reason why Russia agreed on a gas supplies's contract discount is the will of Moscow to keep control on several Polish power station.
Moreover, Russia is interested in the Yamal-Europe pipeline's extension, in order to ensure direct Russian gas supplies's to Germany after the sub marine Nordstream pipeline had several working problems during last months.
The Yamal-Europe pipeline was build by Russia in the early 90's to carry Russian gas to Germany via Poland and Belarus.
The Nordstream is a pipeline built on the Baltic seabed on May 2012 to deliver Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing several EU countries as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
One more reason which motivated Russian concession to Poland is the Moscow's interest to stop the so called "LNG revolution" in Europe.
The European Commission planed the construction of several LNG terminal in order to decrease the European dependence from Russian gas by the direct import of liquefied gas from Qatar, Norway and the USA.
According to Brussels' project, Poland started the realization of an LNG terminal in Swinoujscie, in the Pomerania region, which is going to receive, and deliver in all the EU countries, an important quantity of gas per year.
Poland is also the most important EU country for what concerns the presence of shale gas fields.
Last month, the Polish government allowed several national and US companies - Polish Lotos, Orlen, PGNiG and US ConocoPhilips, Chevron - to study the presence, and the possible exploitation, of unconventional gas in Poland.
According to several studies, Poland has got the biggest shale gas field in Europe. If exploited, Polish unconventional gas could ensure Europe a energetic independence for several year, and could decrease the EU dependence on Russian gas supplies.
Matteo Cazzulani
