Poland changes domestic gas pricing from yearly to quarterly

11 January 2011 16:42  [Source: ICIS news]

PRAGUE (ICIS)--Poland has changed its national gas-pricing policy from yearly to quarterly after the country’s chemical companies lobbied for more flexible pricing that would allow them to better compete against their European rivals, Polish gas monopoly PGNiG said on Tuesday.

Price reductions, when appropriate, would be made in agreement with Poland's Energy Regulatory Office, PGNiG said.

Polish fertilizer producers, such as Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy (ZAP), which is the country’s largest industrial gas consumer and fertilizer producer, were among those that last year complained about paying twice as much for gas as some of their competitors elsewhere in Europe. European companies benefited from international spot prices, the Polish companies had said.

“The change in the gas price-setting policy is, let’s say, a soft agreement between PGNiG, the regulator and chemical companies…After the [economic] crisis, there was a strong lobby to reduce gas prices in Poland from the corporate side, as Polish fertilizer companies – the biggest PGNiG gas consumer as a whole – were uncompetitive versus European fertilizer industry,” said Tomasz Kasowicz, a Warsaw-based equity analyst for Erste Securities Polska.

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By: Will Conroy
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