Vincent Mundy / Bloomberg

Poland's state-owned PGNiG said Gazprom has been reducing gas supplies to Poland since the beginning of the week, Reuters reports. According to PGNIG, supplies fell by 20% on Monday and by 24% on Tuesday.

Poland is not Gazprom's largest client in Europe. In 2013, the country purchased 8.9 billion cubic meters of gas. For comparison: the largest buyer is Germany - 40 billion cubic meters. And the total supplies were 160 billion cubic meters. Poland receives gas via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

According to Reuters, a representative of Transgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom in Belarus through which about a third of Russian gas is pumped to the EU, said there were no emergencies or major repairs on the Yamal-Europe transport line. He also added that the company was fulfilling all Gazprom's requests for transit, but, acting as a transport company, could not comment on issues related to volumes.

A representative of PGNiG did not respond to the request.

"The news agency reports about a reduction in the volume of gas supplies by Gazprom to the Polish company PGNiG are incorrect. Currently, exactly the same volume of gas is being supplied to Poland as in previous days - 23 million cubic meters per day," said a Gazprom representative. Answering a question about the reasons for the deviation of the actual supply volumes from the Polish side's requests, he said: "Gas supplies in all directions are carried out based on the currently available resources for export and ongoing injection into underground gas storage facilities in Russia."

Supplies are being reduced because PGNiG sold gas to Ukraine in reverse, Ukrtransgaz said. Poland has stopped supplying gas to Ukraine in reverse, said Igor Prokopyev, head of the Ukrainian gas transportation system operator Ukrtransgaz, during a roundtable in Kyiv. "Not everything is going so simply. Today, Russia began to limit gas supplies to the Polish Republic in order to disrupt the reverse from Poland that we receive. At two o'clock, Poland stopped the reverse to Ukraine within 4 million cubic meters," Prokopyev said (quoted by RIA Novosti).

Gazprom has previously stated that it would reduce gas supplies to countries that supply it in reverse to Ukraine. "Apparently, in the foreseeable future, a moment will come when we will introduce restrictions on Russian gas supplies in the direction of those gas metering stations (GMS) where we record reverse supplies, with all the ensuing consequences for those companies that receive Russian gas through these GMS. I mean European companies," said Gazprom Chairman of the Board Alexey Miller at a press conference on June 27. "I repeat once again: this is a semi-fraudulent scheme. Ukraine has no right to dispose of our gas in its pipeline. The delivery points are located abroad, outside the territory of Ukraine," Miller emphasized.

Poland has repeatedly said that it wants to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. To this end, the country is building a regasification terminal for receiving liquefied natural gas in Swinoujscie.

Poland: Gazprom limits gas supplies