Polish State Co Books Remaining LNG Capacity: Update

(Adds comment in para 5)

Polish incumbent PGNiG has booked the remaining 35% of the capacity in the LNG import terminal at Swinoujscie to meet growing demand for gas in Poland and central Europe, it said August 29. It already has 65%.

It will be able to use the extended capacity starting from January 1, 2018.

“We have had over a year of intensive exploitation of the terminal. We have signed the second long-term contract for LNG with Qatargas and we received three spot supplies. Demand for gas in Poland is growing. We are also increasing export of the commodity to Ukraine,” said CEO Piotr Wozniak. “Regasification capacity of the LNG terminal in Swinoujscie currently used by PGNiG became insufficient. That is why we decided to increase the reservation,” he added.

PGNiG has been systematically increasing its engagement in the LNG market over the last year. The company opened LNG trading office in London, which is responsible for concluding international contracts for LNG trade. PGNiG has also contracted additional volumes with Qatargas and received the first ever supply of LNG from the US.

The current annual capacity of the LNG terminal in Swinoujscie amounts to 5bn m³. Its operator – Polskie LNG, subsidiary of Gaz-System – has recently decided to raise regasification capacity up to 7.5bn m³, without saying when it would be complete, or who would be taking the volume risk. PGNiG did not say in its August 29 statement whether it would go on to book the extra capacity as well but it later told NGW that it had not done so. 

Since the first commercial LNG delivery to the terminal in Swinoujscie in June 2016, over 3mn m³ of LNG have been supplied to Poland, which amounts to about 2bn m³ of natural gas after regasification, compared with annual demand of around 14bn m³. The supplied LNG came from a long-term contract from Qatar as well as from spot deliveries from the US, Norway and Qatar. In 2016, Qatar supplied 1bn m³ of natural gas and will this year supply 1.3bn m³, and 2.9bn m³ next year, which would be about 60% of the capacity.

William Powell