Poland to get more gas from Gazprom

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MOSCOW, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The Polish government is backing a deal to import more natural gas from Russian energy company Gazprom, a Polish minister said.

Warsaw and Moscow during the weekend approved the text of a document that outlines a deal to increase natural gas deliveries from Gazprom, said Joanna Strzelec-Lobodzinska, the Polish deputy economic minister.

Alexander Medvedev, the deputy chief executive at Gazprom, said the contract will be wrapped up by the end of October. The deal increases gas deliveries to Poland by 22 percent, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.

The deal between Gazprom and its Polish counterpart PGNiG envisions gas supplies through 2022.

Poland gets more than 65 percent of its natural gas from Russia.

The European Commission during the summer said it may fund early work on a natural gas pipeline between Lithuania and Poland.

Europe is eager to break the Russian grip on the European energy sector. A row between Kiev and Moscow that left European consumers without gas for weeks exposed vulnerabilities in the regional energy market.