PGNIG Seeks Russian Gas Price Cut
Poland's PGNiG said on November 2 it had requested talks with Russia's Gazprom to renegotiate the gas price under its long-term supply contract for Russian gas.
The move comes months after Gazprom agreed to pay PGNiG $1.5bn for previously overpricing supplies, following a ruling by a Swedish arbitration court. The pair's long-term contract allows either party to request a revision in price terms every three years "if it determines that they fail to reflect current market conditions," PGNiG said.
PGNiG and Gazprom's so-called Yamal contract came into force in 1996 and covers 10bn m3/year of gas. The take-or-pay clause in the partially oil-indexed contract requires PGNiG to pay for at least 8.7bn m3 of gas annually. The contract is due to expire at the end of 2022 and PGNiG has repeatedly said it will not renew it, replacing Russian volumes with LNG and piped gas from Norway.
Poland's antitrust agency UOKiK recently slapped a €6.5bn ($7.6bn) fine on Gazprom for developing the Nord Stream 2 project without its consent. Warsaw is one of the project's strongest opponents.