On July 1st, the gas market will be liberalized in Poland: everybody will have the right to choose his gas deliverer. The problem is that there will be no choice in fact: the new law providing for gas storages of at least 30-day imports supports the monopoly of PGNiG controlling 95 percent of the market already. The gas giant is the only owner of gas storages in Poland. Importers may either lease the storages from PGNiG, build their own ones, which is very expensive, or import less then 50m cubic meters of gas annually or have below 100,000 receivers.
“We have asked the European Commission for analysis how the new law suits EU regulations concerning the liberalization of gas market”, Zbigniew Dzideczek, the member of the board of Emfesz, the Hunbarian gas deliverer said.
“We haven’t asked EC for help but we are considering this”, Anna Ciura from Media Odra Warta (MOW) company added.
If the EC decides Poland fails to liberalize the market, the country may loose part of over EUR 1 billion of EU funds provided to improve the energy security.