PGNiG told to outline plans

The Economy Ministry wants to privatize PGNiG in parts after breaking it up into an upstream company.
By : Leo Broomfield

   State-owned natural gas monopoly Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG) must come up with a plan on how to privatize the company before elections on Sept. 23, Barbara Litak-Zarębska, deputy treasury minister, said last week.

   The treasury expects zł. 20 billion ($4.7 billion) from the sale of distribution and production firms due to be to spun off from PGNiG.

   The government’s existing plans envisage the sale of a first chunk of the company by the end of 2002. The Economy Ministry wants to privatize PGNiG in parts after breaking it up into an upstream company, four regional distribution firms and one holding group that would control gas trade, transmission and storage businesses. The holding company, due to keep control over strategic pipelines and reservoirs, will not be sold for at least five years.

   The ministry said the four distributors would each take a proportion of PGNiG’s assets before the sale: 8.9% to the Mazowiecki distributor in central Poland; 12.8% to the Karpacka distributor in the south; 14.3% to the Œlšsk distributor in the southwest and 10.6% to the Pomorsko-Wielkopolski distributor in the north and west.