Gazprom pulls out of $1 billion pipeline investment

Leading Russian gas corporation Gazprom has announced it will not take part in the construction of a gas pipeline that is planned to extend from Russia and across Poland, but avoiding Ukraine. The company says the decision is based on the need to save money, since the investment is estimated at over $1 billion. Rzeczpospolita speculates that instead Gazprom may choose to increase the capacity of the existing Jamal Pipeline, which currently carries around 17 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Russia through Poland and on to Germany. During yesterday's visit to Ukraine by Prime Minister Leszek Miller, Ukraine's Prime Minister Anatolij Kinach announced that a contract had been signed with Russia guaranteeing that a minimum of 120 billion cubic meters of Russian gas would be transferred through his country annually until 2014. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A6) A.K.