PGNiG and Norway's Statoil have not reached agreement, but PM Buzek says talks go well
According to the daily Rzeczpospolita, Poland's state-owned oil and gas mining company PGNiG, and Norway's Statoil have not managed to sign an agreement for the supply of gas to Poland by the end-2000 deadline given by the governments. The two companies are said to disagree on some trade issues, particularly Statoil's demand that the Polish government guarantees the contract. Statoil has also been said to demand sales of 10bn cubic meters of gas, which is twice as much as Poland is ready to buy (total gas consumption is about 11bn cubic meters). Yesterday, Poland's Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek commented that negotiations were going well despite difficulties. He admitted that it is the Polish government that would have to guarantee appropriate funding for the building of the pipeline. Buzek also said that the closing of the deal should be expected within the next few weeks, contrary to press reports that anticipated a delay by several months. Poland is eager to build a gas pipeline to ship Norwegian gas to limit its dependence on Russian gas.
Źródło:IntelliNews Daily
