Poland's antitrust authority, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), said Friday it had imposed a fine on France's Engie of Zloty 172 million ($44.5 million) for its failure to provide the watchdog with documents regarding its agreements with Gazprom aboutfinancing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

It was pointed out that the French demand for Russian natural gas has been on the rise for the last four years.

REUTERS - A consortium led by French utility Engie has won a bid for Petrobras’ TAG pipeline arm with an $8.6 billion offer, in a deal that boosts Engie’s presence in a fast-growing sector and will help Petrobras cut its debts.

In 2018, Gazprom increased gas exports to France by 5.4 per cent as compared to 2017 – up to 12.9 billion cubic meters. This upward trend has remained throughout early 2019: according to provisional estimates, Gazprom exported 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas from January 1 to March 14, 2019, showing a 1.9 per cent increase compared to the same period of 2018.

Total SA has agreed to acquire LNG assets from Engie SA for as much as $2.04 billion. The deal includes interests in liquefaction plants, long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements, an LNG tanker fleet, and access to regasification capacities.

Now the two sides, buyer and seller, will have to make do without the safety-net the contracts offered: high gas demand translates into high gas prices for the customers, while indexation to low oil prices would have deprived Gazprom of the upside of a temporary supply glitch or a prolonged cold winter.

В 2015 году спрос французских потребителей на российский газ активно растет. За 11 месяцев «Газпром» экспортировал в республику 8,7 млрд куб. м газа. Это почти на 32% больше, чем за аналогичный период 2014 года (6,6 млрд куб. м).