WARSAW, Poland, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The Polish government reached a preliminary agreement with Russia to make Warsaw's natural gas contracts more agreeable to Europe, the government said.
Poland imports about 265 billion cubic feet of natural gas from Russia each year. Warsaw, however, is courting Eastern European allies in an effort to diversify its energy sector.
A deal under consideration between Warsaw and Moscow would raise the volume of annual gas deliveries to 360 billion cubic feet.
"The parties agreed (to) the text of an intergovernmental accord," the Polish Economy Ministry said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg News.
The European Commission during the summer said it may fund early work on a natural gas pipeline between Lithuania and Poland.
Financial officials at a Lithuanian gas company said the European Commission could fund a portion of the preliminary work for the project.Russian energy company Gazprom abandoned the Amber project in favor of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
Warsaw said the 300-mile pipeline could go on line by 2015 carrying around 175 billion cubic feet each year between both Baltic nations.
