PGNiG to Double Output Before Gazprom Contract Ends

PGNiG will aim to double its production output before a long-term gas contract comes with Gazprom comes to an end in 2019, Polish Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski has said.

At a parliamentay committee to discuss gas pricing and output in Poland, which was also attended by PGNiG CEO Grazyna Piotrowska-Oliwa, Minister Budzanowski said that PGNiG could achieve an 8 billion cubic metre (bcm) production output by 2019.

"Going far above 8 bcm is a strategic goal by 2019," Reuters news agency reported him as saying today. "It is possible, if PGNiG exploits all exploration licences it has."

PGNiG has been actively seeking to diversify its energy supply and suppliers in response to high gas prices from major supplier Gazprom. PGNiG has been locked into arbitration for several months now in a bid to drive prices down to similar levels to other European customers. 

Last week, Ms. Piotrowska-Oliwa, head of PGNiG, welcomed a decision by the European Commission to open an investigation into alleged anti-competition practices by Gazprom, particularly in relation to its linking of gas prices to oil prices.

"The oil indexation solution is from the 1970s and the world has changed since then. There are now gas trading hubs, which makes this solution archaic," the Dow Jones news agency reports her as saying.