Poland’s new liquefied natural gas tanker completes first delivery

The first liquified natural gas (LNG) gas tanker chartered by Polish state energy firm Orlen has arrived in Poland to complete its first delivery of 70,000 tonnes of LNG from the United States – enough to cover the average weekly natural gas consumption of all households in Poland.

The ship, named Lech Kaczyński after the late president and identical twin brother of Poland’s current ruling party chairman, is the first of eight such vessels ordered by Orlen as part of efforts to diversify away from Russian energy supplies.

It arrived at the LNG terminal – also named after Lech Kaczyński – in Świnoujście on Poland’s northern Baltic coast, which last year received a record number of deliveries.

“The Świnoujście terminal, construction of which was initiated by the late president Lech Kaczyński, is a cornerstone of the strategy to diversify natural gas supplies to Poland,” said Orlen’s CEO Daniel Obajtek.

“This is of particular importance, especially at a time of ongoing energy crisis and war across our eastern border,” he added. “[Having] our own fleet gives us great flexibility of operation.”

Because three of the main US supplies of LNG required buyers to organise transport themselves, Polish state gas firm PGNiG – which was later acquired by Orlen – decided to order its own gas tankers for chartering rather than use the services of other companies for delivery.

According to industry news service WNP, this proved a wise decision in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when Russian gas mostly stopped flowing to Europe and growing demand for LNG increased transport costs. PGNiG’s decision likely saved Orlen tens of millions of dollars, reports WNP.

The Lech Kaczyński is the first of two South-Korean-built LNG tankers due to begin operation on behalf of Orlen this year, with two more to follow in 2024 and a further four in 2025.

Poland’s government has long been seeking to reduce the country’s reliance on Russian energy imports. Those efforts were then accelerated after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, with Poland pledging to end all oil, coal and gas imports from Russia.

Warsaw is planning to build a second LNG terminal in the port of Gdańsk, which is also expected to supply neighbouring Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In October, the newly constructed Baltic Pipe began pumping Norwegian gas to Poland via Denmark.

While Poland failed in its aim of ending oil imports from Russia last year, in February this year Moscow unilaterally suspended oil supplies to Poland for unspecified reasons. The decision came one day after Poland had become the first country to donate modern Western tanks to Ukraine.

Main photo credit: Orlen press materials

Alicja Ptak

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