Poland has introduced that, attributable to curiosity from its landlocked neighbours Slovakia and the Czech Republic, in addition to Ukraine, it is going to double the scale of its deliberate floating terminal for receiving, storing and regasifying liquefied pure fuel (LNG).
As a part of its efforts to diversify away from Russian power provides – which started lengthy earlier than the invasion of Ukraine – the Polish authorities has for years meant to construct a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) within the port of Gdańsk on the Baltic coast.
The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated and expanded these plans, deputy infrastructure minister Marek Gróbarczyk confirmed in early March, when the intention was to have the FSRU operational by 2027-28 with an preliminary capability of 6.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) a 12 months.
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Nonetheless, talking right this moment at a congress in Lublin held as a part of the Three Seas Initiative – a regional improvement discussion board – Poland’s power and local weather minister Anna Moskwa revealed that the FSRU plans have since been made much more formidable.
“As a result of rising curiosity of our southern neighbours, and in addition of Ukraine, we plan to broaden to not less than 12 billion cubic metres, which suggests a big terminal with two vessels,” mentioned Moskwa, quoted by the Polish Press Company (PAP).
She added that the federal government was in fixed dialogue with the Czech Republic and Slovakia “to work out the ultimate mannequin of connections” to move the fuel to them. It’s “additionally getting ready for constructing connections with Ukraine”.
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As a part of the longstanding plans to create an FSRU in Gdańsk, Poland had already included an enlargement of its fuel infrastructure. Individually, it has been getting ready planning to open a brand new fuel interconnector with Slovakia later this 12 months.
On a go to to Prague final week, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pledged that his authorities would “attempt to assist the Czech Republic turn out to be unbiased from the Russian [energy] blackmailers”, together with by “doing every little thing to make our ports on the Baltic Sea accessible for Czech wants”.
Final month, Gaz-System, Poland’s fuel transmission system operator, revealed that it hoped to have the FSRU accomplished even sooner than initially deliberate, maybe by 2026 or “possibly even quicker”, reported the Biznes Alert information service.
In her remarks right this moment, Moskwa additionally revealed that Poland shall be proposing Ukraine as a candidate to hitch the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) in Paris subsequent week. “We all know that preliminary approval of Ukraine’s admission to this organisation is already in place.”
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Poland already imports LNG via its terminal in Świnoujście, which at the moment has a capability of 6.2 bcm per 12 months. That is because of rise to eight.3 bcm per 12 months from 2024. A brand new pipeline, the Baltic Pipe, is because of open this 12 months, bringing as much as 10 bcm of Norwegian fuel to Poland by way of Denmark yearly.
In Might, Świnoujście obtained a report variety of LNG deliveries, six, with 5 coming from the USA and one from Qatar. Final week, President Andrzej Duda visited Cairo to debate, amongst different issues, the potential import of LNG from Egypt.
Final month additionally noticed Poland for the primary time import fuel from Lithuania’s FSRU terminal (pictured on the prime of this text) via an interconnector that opened this 12 months between the 2 neighbours.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland has been one of many strongest voices internationally calling for different international locations – particularly its EU companions – to finish the import of Russian power provides, which it has itself pledged to do by the tip of this 12 months.
Poland imports report month-to-month variety of liquefied pure fuel shipments
Primary picture credit score: AB Klaipėdos Nafta/Wikimedia Commons (underneath CC BY-SA 4.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a variety of publications, together with International Coverage, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
