Poland decided to terminate an intergovernmental agreement with Russia on the Yamal gas pipeline, Polish Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said on Twitter on Monday.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has confirmed the accuracy of the Polish government’s determination to become completely independent from Russian gas. We always knew that Gazprom was not a reliable partner,” Moskwa said.
Termination of the contract was a natural step following a halt of Russian supplies to Poland last month, which was a breach of contract, she said. The move does not impact gas flows from Germany to Poland via the pipeline operated by a Polish entity, she added in comments for PAP newswire.
Warsaw refused to comply with the demand to pay for gas in roubles.
Poland has repeatedly declared it had no intention of extending the long-term contract that was set to expire at the end of 2022. Polish gas company PGNiG in 2019 notified Gazprom that it planned to terminate the contract on its expiration date.
Piotr Naimski, Poland’s minister in charge of energy security, told public radio on Monday that the government adopted a resolution terminating the contract from 1993 on supplies of Russian gas to Poland on May 13. An official notification is set to be sent today.
While the Polish section of the Yamal pipeline that links Russia with western Europe is owned by a joint venture between Gazprom and PGNiG, its operation is under control of Poland’s state-owned gas transmission company Gaz-System.
“Intergovernmental agreements with Russia, which are breaching the European law should not be in place any longer,” Moskwa told PAP. “The Yamal pipeline is functioning in line with the European law, which allows to use it for reverse supplies of gas from Germany to Poland without interruption.”
Poland has been using the reverse supplies from Germany as one of the alternative gas supply routes following a halt of Russian supplies, Financial Post reports.
