Poland to extend gas transport contract if Russia offers lower price - Polish foreign minister
MOSCOW. Aug 7 (Interfax) - Poland plans to extend a contract for transporting Russian natural gas to Germany via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline if Russia offers a price lower than the current one, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said.
"Maybe yes. But only if Russia offers a significantly lower price than today," Waszczykowski said in an interview in the Monday issue of Kommersant when asked whether Poland planned to extend the contract expiring on January 1, 2020.
"We continue building infrastructure to diversify deliveries. And perhaps it will be completed at the same time the contract expires. And then we might agree to Russia's proposal, but on the condition the price looks interesting to us," Waszczykowski said.
"Yes, we now depend on Russian gas, but we have already made a decision on diversifying deliveries: we have built an LNG terminal and are importing gas from other regions, for instance, from Qatar and, in the future, from the United States (if the price suits us). We received one tanker from the U.S. in June. This is possible in technical terms, and so we are expecting price proposals from the Americans now. And we have already signed an agreement with Denmark and Norway to build the Baltic Pipe," he said.
"This means that in about five years, we will at least be less dependent on Russian gas, and possibly even completely independent from it: we are capable of meeting one third of our needs via our own production, and we expect to get another third from the LNG terminal and the rest via the gas pipeline from Norway," he said.
"Anyway, we stand ready to keep on buying gas from Russia - but at a competitive price. As regards Nord Stream... We've tried to persuade our European partners that Nord Stream is a political tool. We will also take the opportunity to dispute this project in European courts. And we do welcome U.S. sanctions against those European companies that will support the construction of Nord Stream 2," Waszczykowski said.
