(Adds quotes, background)
WARSAW, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Poland's anti-monopoly watchdog
UOKiK said on Monday it had fined Gazprom 213 million zloty ($57
million) for lack of cooperation in its proceedings
with regard to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
Poland sees Nord Stream 2, which would double Russia's gas
export capacity via the Baltic Sea, as a threat to Europe's
energy security, saying it will strengthen Gazprom's market
dominance.
Nord Stream 2 is led by Gazprom, with half of the funding
provided by Germany's Uniper and BASF's
Wintershall unit, Anglo-Dutch company Shell, Austria's
OMV and Engie.
UOKiK has been examining the project for years and in 2019
it fined Engie 40 million euros for failing to provide documents
and information relating to the case.
"At the beginning of the year, we requested Gazprom provide
us with contracts concluded by its subsidiary with other
companies financing the construction of Nord Stream 2...The
company failed to provide such information," the head of UOKiK
said in a statement.
"To my mind, it is an intentional act, the aim of which was
to obstruct the ongoing proceedings."
Gazprom declined to comment. Russian President Vladimir
Putin and Gazprom have said they plan to complete Nord Stream 2.
More than 90% of the construction has been completed.
The Russian energy giant supplies most of the gas consumed
in Poland. Polish state-run gas company PGNiG has often
complained it pays more than its European peers for Russian gas.
In July, Gazprom paid PGNiG the $1.6 billion the Polish
company won in a pricing dispute and PGNiG chief executive said
that Poland's relations with Gazprom were "becoming normal."
($1 = 3.7592 zlotys)
(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Additional reporting by
Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Editing by Kevin Liffey and
Barbara Lewis)
