In a letter to the European Commission, Poland argued that the Russian officials’ statement linking the increase in gas delivery to Europe with the completion of the Beixi 2 pipeline was “manipulative” and was intended to consolidate Gazprom’s Dominance of the European Union’s natural gas market.
Gazprom is currently seeking approvals from German and EU regulators before sending natural gas through Nord Stream 2, which bypasses the traditional Ukrainian route from Russia to Europe.
However, Poland said in a letter to Margrethe Vestager, head of the European Union’s Antitrust Agency, that the transmission pipelines in Poland and Ukraine are currently under-utilized, so there is no need to build new pipelines.
For Warsaw, “the goal seems clear-to gain a privileged position in the Gazprom and Nord Stream 2 markets by abusing its dominant position and disrupting the EU legal system,” said the letter signed by the Polish Minister of Climate and Environment. Michał Kurtyka, dated October 19th.
Moscow tried to link the increase in European natural gas deliveries with the completion of Beixi 2. “It can only be seen as a misleading and manipulative attempt and clearly demonstrates that Russia has instrumented natural gas supply to achieve political goals,” the letter Say, see through EURACTIV.
Based on this, as well as the market analysis of Gazprom’s behavior in recent months, Poland called on the Commission to “open an in-depth investigation” into Gazprom’s possible abuse of market dominance.
In recent weeks, due to strict restrictions on delivery by Russia, the EU’s main natural gas supplier, natural gas prices have soared to record highs, indicating that European consumers will face further price pressures entering the winter heating season.
The European Commission said last week that Gazprom has provided little or no additional capacity to ease pressure on the EU’s natural gas market, even though it has fulfilled its long-term contracts with European customers.
“We are fulfilling all our contracts, all our obligations,” confirmed Konstantin Kosachev, the pro-Kremlin top legislator in the upper house of the Russian parliament.
“Everything else should be the subject of additional voluntary and mutually beneficial agreements,” he said in an interview earlier this week. According to the news agency Bloomberg.
For Warsaw, this shows that Gazprom is seeking to abuse its dominant position in the EU market, which is prohibited by EU competition law.
In support of its argument, Warsaw pointed out some of the practices of Gazprom, saying that these practices are “different from the behavior of previous years and the standard behavior of other market participants.” Among them, it references:
- Gazprom has not booked additional capacity through the Yamal pipeline or the Ukrainian Natural Gas Transmission System (UGTS).
- Although Russia’s natural gas production is high and the demand for natural gas is increasing throughout the European Union, it restricts the flow of natural gas through routes other than North Stream 1.
- Gazprom-operated gas storage facilities in Europe have the lowest level in history, with an average filling rate of 26%, compared to an average of 757% in the European Union.
- Gazprom only offers long-term contracts and restricts sales through its electronic sales platform.
According to Warsaw, “this has created a series of deliberate measures that have led to a shortage of natural gas supply from Russia, and it has also created a sense of urgency to start the Beixi 2 operation.”
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
