Russia’s OAO Gazprom limited natural gas flows to Poland, preventing the European Union member state from supplying Ukraine via so-called reverse flows. Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA, or PGNiG, got 20 to 24% less fuel than it ordered from Gazprom Export over the past two days. The Polish gas company reported on some technical problems at several gas facilities and submitted a request to Gazprom Export.
Curbing gas supplies by the Russian gas giant was the main cause why Poland had to halt reverse supplies of gas to Ukraine. Traditionally, Ukraine blamed Russia for all trouble. “Russia set about limiting its gas deliveries to Poland to prevent reverse flows to Ukraine. Poland suspended gas supply up to 4 billion cubic meters to Ukraine at 3 pm Warsaw time September 10,” said Ihor Prokopiv, the chief executive officer of UkrTransGaz. While Gazprom was doing pre-winter maintenance on pipelines and filling Russian storage sites, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller warned that the corporation might limit Russian gas supplies to those European companies which are involved in reverse flows to Ukraine. Importantly, Ukraine aims to settle the gas matter by virtue of its neighbors. Thus, it has already received about 16 billion meters from Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. “Considering Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, we are capable to cover 50% of our needs in export gas,” stated Yuriy Prodan, Ukraine’s energy and coal Minister. For the reference, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk offered the EU “the energy union plan” in May 2014. In other words, he called on the “reversal” of the EU energy policy.
