Poland said on Friday it would not agree to Russia's request to construct a natural gas pipeline on Polish territory that would allow Moscow to bypass its main transit route to the West that now runs through Ukraine.
through Ukraine.
Russia’s gas giant, Gazprom, has asked Poland to link the large Yamal pipeline, which brings gas from Siberia to Western Europe through Belarus and Poland, with Slovakia’s gas network, effectively bypassing Ukraine.
The move would allow Gazprom to directly sell gas to customers in southern Europe without relying on pipelines in Ukraine, which has large gas import payment arrears.
“We do not want gas transit through Poland to harm Ukraine’s interests. We cannot accept the routing (of the pipeline) according to Russia’s proposal,” Poland’s Minister of the Economy Janusz Steinhoff said, following talks with Ukraine’s Energy Minister Serhiy Yermilov.
Yermilov said he regarded the pledge as “the manifestation of a strategic partnership between Poland and Ukraine.”
Warsaw has long been a proponent of closer links between Ukraine, Poland, and Western Europe, which analysts say is meant to keep the large former Soviet Republic from coming under Moscow’s dominance.
Nevertheless, Steinhoff said Poland would like to complete the 1993 agreement with Russia, which provides for the construction of two branches of the Yamal pipeline on its territory with a total capacity of 64 million cubic meters. The first branch opened last year with half that capacity, and pumps gas to Germany.
The second pipeline’s route would be negotiated with Russia, according to Steinhoff, but it should pose no threat to Ukraine. Originally, Poland wanted the second branch to run parallel with the first one.
Polish news media have reported that Gazprom was considering constructing an alternative pipeline through the Baltic Sea, which would effectively deprive Poland of hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees annually.
According to Steinhoff, in order for both Poland and Ukraine to potentially diversify gas supplies, the two countries plan to review the possibility of bringing gas into Ukraine from Western Europe, as most supplies presently come from Russia.
