Poland looks to bolster energy security with new LNG terminal

The new floating terminal that Poland plans to have up and running by 2025 will have a capacity of 4 billion cubic metres of LNG annually, Piotr Naimski, the Polish government's pointman on strategic energy infrastructure, said.

He told reporters that the capacity of the planned Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) in the northern port city of Gdańsk could eventually double to 8 billion cubic metres per year.

Naimski was talking to reporters in Brussels, where an EU-US energy forum was held on Thursday to discuss ways of enhancing LNG trade between America and Europe.

During the forum, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry encouraged EU countries to buy LNG from the United States instead of Russia as a way for them to diversify their energy supplies.

The planned construction of a floating LNG terminal in Gdańsk comes as part of Poland’s efforts to diversify gas supplies and reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

Officials last month signed an agreement under which the European Union undertook to help finance a planned expansion of an existing LNG terminal in the port city of Świnoujście in Poland’s northwest.

President Andrzej Duda said at the time that the expansion of the Świnoujście terminal, combined with the construction of a planned gas link to Norway via Denmark—a project known as the Baltic Pipe—would enable Poland to “not only soon become completely sovereign in terms of gas supplies, but also bring this kind of security to its neighbours.”

The terminal's operator, the Polskie LNG company, said in December that the Świnoujście facility would be expanded to increase its capacity from 5 billion to 7.5 billion cubic metres of LNG annually.

Poland’s state-run gas giant PGNiG said in December it had finalised a 20-year contract for liquefied natural gas from US company Port Arthur LNG, the third such long-term deal with an American firm.

PGNiG in November signed a 24-year deal with American supplier Cheniere to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States.

In October, PGNiG signed a long-term agreement with two subsidiaries of the US-based Venture Global LNG company for the purchase of LNG from the United States as Poland strives to become independent of Russian supplies.

Poland’s Naimski said in February that his country would stop buying Russian gas after its long-term supply contract with Russia’s state-owned producer Gazprom expires in 2022.

(gs)

Source: IAR, PAP