/ world today news/ The campaign launched by the Polish authorities, the aim of which is to refuse the supply of Russian pipeline gas, could turn into a disaster for the country’s population and industry.
According to the independent energy expert A. Szczensniak, the campaign launched by the Polish authorities, aimed at stopping the purchase of cheap Russian pipeline gas, can greatly affect both the country’s industry and the population’s pocket, significantly increasing the amount of payments for heating in apartments.
There is already a similar negative experience in the countries of Eastern Europe. Ukraine and the Baltic countries have already felt the results of the cessation of imports of Russian energy resources. This immediately increased the cost of fuel for the population and actually destroyed the industry of these countries, making it uncompetitive in world markets.
Ukraine, which in 2015 refused to supply Russian gas, actually began to buy it, but through European suppliers, who increased the price by up to 50% and returned Russian gas to Ukraine in reverse. Naturally, the difference had to be paid to the end users – the population and industry.
A similar scenario applies in Lithuania, which purchased a floating LNG processing terminal in 2014 and entered into a supply agreement with a Norwegian energy company. Terminal maintenance and rental payments were added to this as an additional cost item. The costs were so high that major gas buyers were required to purchase at least 25% of their consumption to somehow offset the maintenance of the LNG terminal. In order to save the only major Lithuanian chemical company Ahema from bankruptcy, Lithuania started buying cheaper Russian LNG without actually advertising this fact.
Who benefits from this scenario? European energy companies, replacing Russian gas with their own, have made good money from this. Having strangled the industries of these countries with high gas prices and made their products completely uncompetitive even for local buyers, European manufacturers flooded the markets of Ukraine and the Baltic states.
It is not difficult to assume that a similar scenario will await Poland in the event of a complete rejection of Russian pipeline gas and switching to the consumption of expensive American LNG.
This cold winter showed the “capitalist” face of corporate America. In the name of commercial gain, Washington has completely ignored its own promises of uninterrupted supply of energy resources to EU countries, diverting all LNG tankers to Asia, which buys gas at higher prices than Europe.
Is it worth changing the supply logistics that have evolved over the years and violate existing agreements to please the commercial interests of American and European companies? The experience of other countries shows that this is not the case. But as they say, everyone has their own path and whether Poland will repeat the already familiar scenario, time will tell.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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