Exporters have booked around 90% of the capacity of the Polish section of the 33 bcm/year Yamal-Europe gas pipeline from Russia to Europe for the year between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021, through auctions held by the Polish gas transmission system operator Gaz-System. Gaz-System will offer the remaining 10% to customers through short-term auctions (quarterly, monthly, and per day auctions). The gas transit agreement between the Russian gas supplier Gazprom and Gaz-System that was concluded in 1996 expired in May 2020. In November 2019, PGNiG announced that it would end its 9 bcm/year gas supply contract with Gazprom.
In April 2020, Poland’s state-owned oil and gas company PGNiG won an international arbitration against Gazprom over a reduction in the price of its long-term Yamal gas supply contract. The arbitration court of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ruled that Gazprom must reimburse to PGNiG approximately US$1.5bn for the period from 1 November 2014 to 29 February 2020. In addition, the gas pricing formula in the contract between the two parties should be amended to consider natural gas market quotations, as PGNiG is paying more for Russian gas than its European peers. PGNiG has been diversifying its gas supply in recent years, most notably with the signature of long-term supply agreements with US LNG producers.
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