MOSCOW: Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Saturday it was not able to supply Poland with the volumes of natural gas it was requesting and could only deliver levels closer to daily minimum allowed under the contract.

Gazprom gave no reason for its inability to deliver the gas, but earlier this week said it was exporting gas subject to available resources and pumping to storage facilities in Russia.

“They are requesting the maximum, and we are only able to supply closer to the daily minimum,” a Gazprom spokesman told Reuters asked about Poland’s requests for gas.

Energy analysts in Warsaw have said Russia may be using deliveries to Poland to send Europe a tentative warning it will retaliate if Brussels goes through with new sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine. The West accuses the Kremlin of fomenting a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine; something Moscow denies.

In Slovakia, the main entry point for Russian supplies to the EU, importer SPP saw a roughly 10 per cent decrease in gas supplies from Russia for a fourth day in a row on Saturday, a spokesman said.

Romania’s Energy Minister Razvan Nicolescu said on Saturday Gazprom had scrapped a plan to cut gas exports to Romania by 9pc on Saturday and by 5pc on Sunday.

Gazprom had notified Romania of the intended cuts on Friday.

Poland’s state gas pipeline operator said that gas flows from the eastern direction were stable on Friday compared to Thursday at about 20 million cubic metres (mcm), but were still below what the Polish gas importer PGNiG has requested. Gazprom is Poland’s sole gas supplier from the east.

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014