Poland could free natural gas prices in 2 to 3 years at the earliest and only for businesses, the head of the oil and gas department at the Economy Ministry was quoted as saying by Rzeczpospolita daily on Saturday. The gas market is monopolised by state-controlled PGNiG and prices are set by the state regulator URE.
"To move away from setting prices by the regulator URE will be possible in two-three years and initially only for businesses," Kaliski said. Poland is being pushed by the European Commission to liberalise the gas market and open it up to other European companies.
The monopoly PGNiG would also welcome the move as the regulator does not raise the gas tariffs as often and by as much as it would like, often setting them below the cost of gas imported from Russia. Poland imports about two-thirds of the 14 billion cubic metres of gas it uses annually.