Polish-Norwegian gas contract abandoned

A Polish-Norwegian gas contract, meant to provide Poland with an alternative source of gas than Russia, will not be carried out. The Norwegian company Statoil announced jointly with Polish Oil and Gas (PGNiG) on Tuesday that there was no basis to carry out the 75 billion cubic meters deal, which was signed back in September 2001. "Finalizing the contract required active moves from the current government and talks with potential clients from our southern and eastern neighbors. The government was only sending negative signals, which discouraged Statoil from ratifying the deal," said former Deputy Prime Minister Jerzy Steinhoff. President of PGNiG, Marek Kossowski claims that the contract could not be carried out, as it "would not pay for itself." "The Norwegian company did not find additional clients and we do not need to import an additional 5 billion cubic meters of gas, as we intend to increase our domestic extraction from 4 billion to 6 billion cubic meters," explained Kossowski. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) M.M.