Norway, western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, should share the huge profits it has made from oil and gas exports since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this weekend.
“They should share these excess profits. It’s not normal, it’s unjust. This is an indirect preying on the war started by Putin,” Morawiecki said during a meeting with a youth group on Sunday, as quoted by Bloomberg.
“But should we be paying Norway gigantic money for gas — four or five times more than we paid a year ago? This is sick,” Morawiecki said.
“Write to your young friends in Norway…They should share it, not necessarily with Poland [but] for Ukraine, for those most affected by this war. Isn’t that normal?” the Polish prime minister added, Notes from Poland reports.
Poland expects to start receiving natural gas from Norway via the Baltic Pipe Project, which is planned to be fully commissioned at the start of 2023 and diversify Poland’s gas supply.
Meanwhile, Polish Minister of Climate and Environment, Anna Moskwa, said on Monday that Poland had terminated an agreement to receive Russian gas via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, nearly a month after Russia stopped deliveries to Poland after the EU member refused to pay in rubles for gas.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has confirmed the accuracy of the Polish government’s determination to become completely independent from Russian gas,” the Polish minister tweeted, adding that “We always knew that Gazprom was not a reliable partner.”
In late April, Gazprom cut off Russian gas deliveries to Poland – as well as to Bulgaria—saying that supply was stopped “due to absence of payments in rubles.”
Poland had a deal with Gazprom expiring at the end of 2022.
Poland has always argued that Europe needs to cut its reliance on Russian gas because Moscow weaponizes energy to gain influence in the EU. Poland itself has been trying for years to shake off its dependence on Russian gas as it has always considered Russia’s energy policy a threat to energy security.
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Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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This begs the question as to whether Poland will dare ask the United States to share its rising profits from its LNG supplies to the EU whose prices have also benefited from what it describes as Putin's war. I doubt it will make such a request and I equally doubt that the United States will oblige.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London
Oil companies are hardly "preying on the war started by Putin". They are praying on the incompetence and short sightedness of world leadership and the green extremists, that tried to shut down oil and gas production without having anything to fall back on. The prices of oil were very close to what they are now before the war, and were going up for the past year of so, exactly because of this under investment in oil and gas.
So Morawiecki, shake your head and rethink that statement, pretty please.
Not only could nuclear power liberate Poland from Russian natural gas, but they could build extra capacity and turn carbon-free nuclear power into a national export, earning billions in income annually.
In an era when the Asian continent is ascendant and dominant in manufacturing, and America is dominant in technological innovation, a petroleum-poor country like Poland can be hard-up trying to find an economic niche where it can compete and generate income.
Nuclear power is the answer.
Now he wants Norway to compensate Poland for the cost of breaking contracts with Russia. Good luck, powodzenia! What is logical here is the search for blame for the consequences of rather profligate policies and creative accounting.
It is also worth stressing that however intelligent Morawiecki may be, he is but a tool of a deputy prime minister, Polish political system is a bit convoluted.