Polish state energy giant Orlen is set to take ownership of the Polish section of the Yamal pipeline, which brings Russian gas to Europe. The move would see Russia’s Gazprom lose its stake in the pipeline.
“We are putting an end to the Russian [gas] flows in the Polish gas transit system!” declared Orlen’s CEO, Daniel Obajtek.
Kończymy z rosyjskimi wypływami w polskim systemie tranzytu gazu! Europol Gaz po uprawomocnieniu decyzji @MRiTGOVPL zostanie właścicielem akcji należących dotychczas do PAO Gazprom, a Grupa ORLEN przejmie kontrolę nad Systemem Gazociągów Tranzytowych. Polska przez całe dekady…
— Daniel Obajtek (@DanielObajtek) October 10, 2023
On Tuesday, Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) announced that it had approved Orlen’s plans, submitted a week earlier, to take complete control of EuRoPol Gaz, the entity that owns the Polish section of the pipeline.
Until now, EuRoPol Gaz has been jointly owned by PGNiG, a Polish state gas firm that was itself taken over by Orlen last year, and Russian state energy firm Gazprom. Each had a 48% stake, with Gas Trading, also part of the Orlen group, holding the remaining 4%.
However, last year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s government took temporary control over Gazprom’s assets in the country, including its Yamal stake. In its decision this week, UOKiK found no antitrust grounds to oppose Orlen’s takeover of Gazprom’s stake.
The route of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline (source: Samuel Bailey/Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY-SA 3.0)
“Today’s decision is a step towards restoring the full control of Polish entities over the country’s strategic gas infrastructure,” declared Obajtek yesterday.
“For decades, Poland was dependent on natural gas supplies from Russia – 10 years ago it accounted for approximately 80% of imports,” he added. “Since 2022, we are completely independent from Russian gas.”
After the invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s government – with the backing of Orlen – announced plans to end all Russian energy imports by the end of 2022. It succeeded with gas and coal, though some oil imports continued until Gazprom cut them off in February this year.
The Baltic Pipe, an idea first conceived in 1991, has finally begun pumping gas from Norway to Poland via Denmark.
The pipeline will bolster both Poland's security and Europe's efforts to wean itself off Russian gas, writes @wjakobik https://t.co/VEnKo14e8Q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 5, 2022
In a further statement issued by Orlen, Obajtek said that “the takeover of Gazprom’s shares…will be of fundamental importance to the public interest and security of our country, not only in terms of energy”.
The firm noted that the takeover of the shares will be enabled through a decision issued by the development ministry under a sanctions law introduced in April last year in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
The value of the transaction will be 787 million zloty (€174 million) but, due to sanctions against Gazprom, the funds will not go to the Russian firm but instead be frozen in a special bank account, reports financial news service Money.pl.
The Polish section of the Yamal pipeline runs for 684km from Poland’s eastern border with Belarus to its western border with Germany.
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Main image credit: James Offer/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
