Polish PM demands that “sick” Norway should “share” its huge profits from oil and gas exports, “because we are now paying 4 to 5 times more than for Russian gas a year ago”. Norway, western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, should share with Poland the huge profits it is making from oil and gas exports after Poland stopped the Russian gas flow it was getting for next to nothing for 30 years.
“They should share these profits. It’s not normal, it’s unjust.” Morawiecki said during a meeting with a youth group on Sunday, as quoted by Bloomberg.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has taken the unusual step of urging for Norway to share its “gigantic” profits made as a result of soaring oil and gas prices, posing during a Sunday Q&A at a political youth forum, “But should we be paying Norway gigantic money for gas — four or five times more than we paid a year ago (to Russia)?” He then asserted in the negative, “This is sick.”
“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.
However, Norway has made it clear that it’s not going to give in to Poland’s demand for it to share its growing profits from the oil and gas trade with either Warsaw or Kiev. Norwegian people and their economy are also suffering from soaring oil and gas prices, Oslo says.
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Eivind Vad Petersson questioned Morawiecki’s calculations on Monday.
He explained that excess oil and gas revenues go into the country’s pension fund, also known as the Oil Fund, which was established in 1990 to make sure that this wealth serves the current and future generations of Norwegians.
“Although petroleum revenues have increased as a result of the war in Ukraine, the value of the fund has fallen,” Vad Petersson pointed out.
Since the start of the year, the pension fund has lost 550 billion Norwegian krone (around $56 billion) due to turbulence on the stock market, the diplomat said.
“The Norwegian economy and Norwegian consumers are also being hit by higher prices for electricity and petrol,” he added.
Also on Monday, the Polish government, which is a strong backer of Kiev in its conflict with Moscow, announced the termination of its natural gas supply contract with Russia without waiting for its expiry at the end of 2022 and now cries to Poland to get there cheap gas too.
“After 30 years, it can be stated that relations in the gas industry between Poland and Russia have ceased,” Piotr Naimsky, Polish commissioner for strategic energy infrastructure, said about the move.
Russian gas giant Gazprom had already stopped supplying gas to Poland in April after Warsaw refused to switch to ruble payments for deliveries. The new rules for so-called “unfriendly countries” were introduced by Moscow in response to sanctions and the freezing of Russian foreign assets, RT reports.