Poland's gas tanks almost full, minister says

Polish gas storage tanks have been filled to 84 percent capacity and the country needs no Russian gas now, Jacek Sasin, a deputy prime minister and the state assets minister, has said.

In late April, Russian gas giant Gazprom stopped the flow of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree that ordered payments for Russian gas be made in roubles, a demand the two countries rejected.

"We have our storage tanks filled to 84 percent," Sasin told the public television channel TVP1 on Wednesday.

"We're the country that is the best-prepared in Europe for this gas crisis," Sasin said, adding that on average the EU's storage tanks were filled to 30 percent capacity.

Sasin also said the current gas reserves were enough for one and a half months assuming that no other gas was imported to Poland whatsoever.

But the official said that Poland was "managing without the Russian gas and without using the gas stored in the tanks."

"We have covered the shortfall of Russian gas by imports from other sources," he said.