Poland ready for gas exchange in Q4-regulator

WARSAW, June 25 (Reuters) - Regulators, suppliers, exchange operators and pipeline operators are making enough progress in talks to launch a gas exchange in Poland in the fourth quarter of 2012, the head of the energy regulator URE said on Monday.

In January Poland's PolPx energy exchange and gas network operator Gaz-System began talks on setting up a gas exchange. A month later state-controlled PGNiG offered to auction off as much as 70 percent of its gas to potential rivals in the future.

"There is constructive co-operation between URE, PGNiG, POLPX and Gaz-System, which lets me say responsibly that it is possible to launch a gas exchange in the fourth quarter," URE chief Marek Woszczyk said.

Poland's 14 billion-cubic-metre (bcm) gas market is dominated by state-controlled PGNiG and overseen by regulator URE, which sets tariffs. The European Union nation imports the bulk of its supplies from Russia.

Woszczyk said he has received a declaration from PGNiG that it was ready to jump-start the market in the last quarter of the 2012 by offering 100 million cubic metres of gas for sale.

Power exchange POLPX is now awaiting approval of the statute of the future gas exchange by the financial regulator KNF, Woszczyk added. (Reporting by Maciej Onoszko; Editing by Michael Kahn)