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Poland’s PGNiG expects proposals from Gazprom on interaction after 2022 — company's CEO

Earlier the company's head said that PGNiG was not going to sign new long-term contracts with Gazprom in the future

KRYNITSA-ZDROJ (Poland), September 4. /TASS/. The Polish oil and gas company PGNiG (Polskie Gуrnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo) expects proposals from the Russian gas holding Gazprom on interaction after 2022, the company’s head Piotr Wozniak said on Wednesday. He was talking at the 29th Economic Forum, which is taking place in southern Poland.

"We are waiting for proposals," he said, answering a question from a TASS correspondent about possibilities of cooperation between PGNiG and Gazprom after the expiration of the long-term Yamal gas supply contract with Poland in 2022.

"We read this contract as it is written. Both parties have the same rights. We can come up with proposals just like Russians can do," Wozniak said.

"We have many proposals on LNG, natural gas from around the world," he stressed.

Earlier, speaking at the forum, Wozniak said that PGNiG was not going to sign new long-term contracts with Gazprom in the future.

"We have no plans to enter into long-term contracts with our partner called Gazprom," he said, adding that cooperation with the Russian company "creates risks."

Poland consumes more than 15 bln cubic meters of gas per year. Of this volume, it produces one third independently on its territory while importing the rest.

Gazprom is the main supplier of gas to Poland. Under a long-term contract with Gazprom, Poland can annually acquire 10.2 bln cubic meters of gas.

In 2012, the parties agreed to reduce gas prices by 10%. In 2015, PGNiG filed a suit against Gazprom to the Stockholm Arbitration Court. Warsaw claims the price of gas in the current agreement is overestimated and does not correspond to the situation on the European energy market.

The Polish authorities said the country was seeking a replacement for Russian gas supplies until 2022, when a long-term contract with Gazprom would expire. One of the alternatives is to increase procurement of liquefied natural gas supplied by the US and Qatar. For the moment, Poland purchases only small volumes of LNG from those countries. Another possibility is the construction of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline, which is supposed to connect Poland with the Norwegian offshore gas fields through Denmark.