The Polish government has approved a gas agreement with Russia, which increases gas deliveries to Poland, the government press office said on Tuesday.

The government approved the agreement due to the Polish need for larger gas deliveries, which will build up national energy security, the press office said.

It is planned to sign the intergovernmental agreement in the near future.

The gas deal with Russia meets Polish interests, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the local radio in mid-September.

“The deal removes the possible danger of Nord Stream, because the new pipeline will not rule out the operation of the Yamal-Europe network,” he said.

The European Commission retracted objections to the Russia-Poland gas deal, Tusk told a press conference on September 14.

He said the objections were lifted, and all the sides had to do was to edit the prospective accord.

Russian Gazprom and Polish PGNiG coordinated several months ago the terms of a supplement to the gas agreement on 1993 enlarging gas deliveries to 10.3 billion cubic meters and extending the contract until 2037. An agreement on long-term gas supplies was reached during an April meeting of the Russian and Polish premiers but the agreement was not signed by now because of certain doubts of the European Commission.

The European Commission expressed concern about the operator of the Yamal pipeline supplying gas to Europe. An independent operator must supervise gas deliveries on the Polish territory in keeping with the EU requirements, so that all market dealers have an equal access to the infrastructure, the European Commission said.

The European Commission comment on the Russian-Polish gas contract will not become an impediment, Tusk said on August 31.

He said Poland paid attention to comments of certain European officials but the comments were not fundamental and could not prevent the signing of the contract. The premier also noted that the comments concerned certain provisions of the contract rather than essential details.

The gas agreement with Russia meets the interests of Poland and Polish citizens, Tusk said. He also noted that Poland would not allow to apply larger restrictions to Polish gas treaties than those applied to gas treaties of other countries with the same exporters.

Gas and energy security are fundamental not only for Poland but also for the entire European Union and Polish-Russia relations, Tusk said.

Poland knows how sensitive the issue is, so it is ready for discussing contract details with Russia and the European Union, he said.

EuRoPolGAZ, which belongs to Gazprom and PGNiG, is the operator of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. It will transfer functions of the operation of the Polish segment to to Gaz System S.A, a designated natural gas transmission system operator in Poland.

Polish Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak held negotiations with European Energy Commission Gunther Oettinger in Brussels on September 6. He told a press conference after the negotiations that the European Commission demanded a more precise and transparent description of functions and relations between the gas pipeline owner and the operator. The minister also said that the European Commission did not question fundamental provisions of the treaty, as such as the amount of deliveries or charges.

Poland hopes for signing the intergovernmental agreement very soon, as Poland will spend all the gas supplied under the current contract already in October and will encounter problems in the provision of local consumers with gas in winter.

The agreement says that gas deliveries will steadily grow from 9.7 billion cubic meters in 2010 to 11 billion cubic meters in 2012 and following years. The validity of contracts on gas supply and transit by the Yamal-Europe pipeline remain unchanged, that is until 2022 and 2019.

The negotiations on amendments to the gas agreement of 1993 started in May 2009 and ended on October 17 in Moscow.

Source: www.itar-tass.com