Poland imports record monthly number of liquefied natural gas shipments

Poland received a record number of shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through its terminal in Świnoujście in May. So far this year, the number of LNG deliveries have been one third higher than in the same period of 2021.

Boosting supplies of LNG has been a key element in efforts to wean the country off Russian energy sources. Those have been ongoing for years – with the Świnoujście terminal opening in 2015 – but were given extra impetus by the invasion of Ukraine and later decision by Gazprom to cut off gas supplies to Poland.

State energy firm PGNiG yesterday announced that it had received its sixth LNG shipment in May at Świnoujście, a new monthly record. The latest arrival was 73,000 tonnes of LNG from the United States, which corresponds to 100 million cubic metres (mcm) of natural gas after regasification.

The firm noted that over the whole of May, the total volume of deliveries was 0.45 million tonnes of LNG, or 620 mcm after regasification. That is enough gas to cover use by all domestic customers for 2.5 months during the spring and summer, said PGNiG. Five of the shipments came from the US and one from Qatar.

“The record monthly number of deliveries is the result of the intensification of LNG imports to strengthen Poland’s energy security,” said PGNiG, which is the only LNG importer in Poland.

Since the start of the year, PGNiG has received a total of 20 LNG shipments, one third more than in the same period of 2021. The regasification capacity of the Świnoujście terminal is now 6.2 bcm per year, which is 1.2 bcm more than in 2021. From 2024, capacity will be increased to 8.3 bcm per year.

“Increasing LNG imports is PGNiG’s response to the tight situation on the European gas market caused, among other things, by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and restrictions on fuel supplies from the East,” added the firm.

In addition to the six deliveries to Swinoujscie in May, PGNiG also took delivery of a cargo of LNG at the Klaipėda terminal in Lithuania.

“This was the first LNG delivery for PGNiG to a regasification facility located abroad. Thanks to the Poland-Lithuania gas pipeline launched in May this year, most of the cargo delivered to Klaipėda was sent to [Poland] after regasification, while the remaining part was sent to the market of the Baltic states,” PGNiG said.

A similar gas link between Poland and Slovakia is currently under construction and is set to be inaugurated soon, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced last month. This week, he visited Cairo to discuss, among other things, the potential import of LNG from Egypt.

Even before the war in Ukraine, Poland had already planned not to renew its contract with Russia’s Gazprom, which expires at the end of this year. After Russia’s invasion, those plans were accelerated, with the government pledging to end Russian gas imports within six months and oil and coal imports this year.

Main photo credit: GAZ-SYSTEM press pack

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.