Poland to step up plans for gas exports
WARSAW (Reuters) -- Poland wants to expand its gas infrastructure to resell some of the gas it will take through its Baltic Sea liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and planned link to Norway, a director at the country's gas grid operator Gaz-System said on Monday.
The LNG terminal was built to reduce Poland's reliance on imported gas, most of which is supplied by Russia's Gazprom. The terminal began operating in June and Poland now plans to build a link through Denmark to Norway.
Total volumes through the new connections are expected to be more than Poland's annual consumption of 15-16 billion cubic metres of gas a year, allowing excess supply to be resold to other countries including Ukraine.
"From our point of view it is important to arrange projects in such a way that they will help us secure new gas sources on the one hand and export capacities on the other," Gaz-System's Pawel Jakubowski told an industry conference.
"New export-related infrastructure is needed and this is why we are doing cross-border link projects."
Gaz-System is working on new gas connections with Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but its flagship project is the link to Norway, which, together with the LNG terminal, has been dubbed the "northern gate."
The deputy head of state-run gas company PGNiG told the same conference that the next 3-5 months will be key to the planned connection to Norway as gas companies indicate their potential capacity requirements.
"At the same time, there are things happening behind our western border that could lead to a significant reshaping of the gas market in western Europe," PGNiG's Maciej Wozniak added, referring to Gazprom's planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the EU's decision to grant the Russian energy giant greater access to the Opal link in Germany.
Wozniak said that gas transit routes through Poland and Ukraine could ultimately be cut off because Gazprom would be able to send its gas to western Europe through the existing and new Baltic Sea pipelines.
Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by David Goodman
- Gasum powers Equinor's platform supply vessel with bio-LNG
- ADNOC deploys pioneering AI-enabled process optimization technology
- Mexico Pacific announces long-term LNG SPA with POSCO International
- ONEOK to acquire Medallion and controlling interest in EnLink for $5.9 B
- Golar LNG signs EPC deal for $2.2-B MK II FLNG conversion project
Comments