WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s dominant gas firm PGNiG will take immediate steps to receive from its Russian gas supplier Gazprom the $1.5 billion it won in a pricing dispute case, PGNiG Chief Executive Jerzy Kwiecinski said on Tuesday.
An international arbitration court ruled that Russian gas giant Gazprom must pay PGNiG about $1.5 billion in a pricing dispute case. The arbitration tribunal in Stockholm also ruled that a gas pricing formula in PGNiG’s long-term deal with Gazprom should be changed to take into account natural gas market quotations.
PGNiG buys from Gazprom most of the gas it resells, and it had often said it pays more than its western European peers.
“Please do not expect that the money will be transferred on our accounts tomorrow. This ruling shows that we were right and sets up a new pricing formula. It says nothing on how we are to reclaim the money. So we are starting this process immediately,” Kwiecinski told a videoconference.
Gazprom Export said on Monday that it had received the Stockholm arbitration ruling and was analysing it.
Poland wants to reduce its reliance on gas from Russia and does not plan to extend its deal with Gazprom when it expires in 2022.
PGNiG has been buying more liquefied natural gas (LNG) via a terminal on the Baltic Sea to replace gas from Russia. Poland also plans to build a gas link to Norway, which would give it access to gas from the North Sea.
“Poland was a subject of (Gazprom’s) blackmail, which emerged in breaks in supplies or reducing the amount of gas delivered to Poland. Poland was also a subject of blackmail when it comes to prices. Now, thanks to Poland’s determination this blackmail turned out ineffective,” Poland’s Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin told the same conference.
Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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