Kazakhstan gas supplies to Poland via new pipeline unrealistic - Bartimpex tycoon Gudzowaty

Poland's plans to win US support for a pipeline from Kazakhstan are unrealistic, Aleksander Gudzowaty, Polish tycoon at the helm of conglomerate Bartimpex, told Interfax Tuesday."This is another virtual project," Gudzowaty said. "The project is very complicated as it passes sensitive regions. Besides that Poland isn't large receiver of natural gas - it needs some 15 bln cubic meters of natural gas annually and doesn't seem to need much more.

"There are simpler and cheaper solutions [to import natural gas]," he added. On Monday Polish daily Rzeczpospolita wrote that America could help Poland diversify gas supplies in exchange for permission to build anti-missile shield bases in Poland. The diversification could concern Poland's participation in a gas pipeline project transporting gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Western Europe.

For the last 15 years, the self-made billionaire and head of Bartimpex was the key middleman between Poland and Russia on Russian gas supply. He remains firmly in the Polish-Russian gas equation, owning 36% of Gaz Trading, which holds the 4% balance of power in Yamal gas pipeline operator, EuRoPol Gaz. Russia's Gazprom recently announced plans to put off extending the Yamal line in lieu of the new Baltic line, sparking a political row between Russia, Poland, Germany and the EU that is gaining pace.

Natural gas sector insiders told Interfax on Monday that the prospect of running an extension to a Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan gas pipeline to Poland may prove attractive, but it does not solve Poland's short- and medium-term problems with gas supplies.

They claim that realization of this project is so distant that Poland should reduce its activity in the project to monitoring it.
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