Any supplier will do for unpaid gas
It is rumoured that gas monopolist PGNiG has a new supplier. It is the Sinclair Technologies Company with which, it would appear, that the Polish gas monopoly signed a supply contract on 2 October. PGNiG has chosen not to comment and it would seem that Sinclair has another client in mind — the Puławy chemical works.
It is said that the supply of 250m cubic metres of gas is at stake here. For the chemical works, which failed to make an IPO in the summer, the question of cheap fuel is one of the most important.
It is clear that Polish companies not only need to diversify their suppliers but also seek cheaper supplies. However no-one seemed to know anything about Sinclair. Therefore Puławy asked Dun & Bradstreet to find out what they could. It turned out that there is no firm by that name in Arkansas under the address that Sinclair gave. Despite this, again according to unconfirmed information, a contract was signed.
Marek Pochwalski, a member of the board at Puławy, claims that the company exists in their opinion but that 'no contract that would be binding was signed' (whatever that means).
PGNiG however has no doubts.
Sinclair proposed to supply PGNiG with Ukrainian gas in June which the monopoly could not take advantage of as it was receiving gas from Elcom. Elcom later broke the agreement when PGNiG stopped paying as its account was blocked. PGNiG now owes Elcom over PLN152m.
So now Sinclair could be supplying the very same Ukrainian gas.