Thirteen days before Poland’s general election, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz opened the nation’s first terminal to import liquefied natural gas. The terminal is country’s first one to import liquefied natural gas at the Baltic Sea port of Swinoujscie promising full independence of gas supply from the east.
The first cargo with liquefied natural gas is expected to arrive in the new hub in early December from Qatar between Dec. 11 and Dec. 17 and the second tanker should arrive in February 2016, the Treasury Minister Andrzej Czerwinski said.
Gazoport is Poland’s flagship project to diversify its gas supplies and reduce a dependence on Russia. The terminal has been in the works for several years. According to Andrzej Czerwinski, the full launch of the terminal will take five months.
“The gas, which will arrive now, will not be burnt. It will be gradually pumped into the distribution system,” minister Czerwinski said. “The real, automatic gas distribution will happen in the second quarter of next year,” he added.
Built at a cost of about PLN 3.5 billion, the terminal is likely to reach full capacity by 2018, Jan Chadam, CEO of Swinoujscie terminal operator Polskie LNG SA said.
The facility, which can import 5 billion cubic meters of gas a year, will create an additional supply route for Poland, which got about 4 billion cubic meters through pipelines from Russia in the first six months of this year. The country can also access more gas by reversing flows in existing links carrying Gazprom’s supplies to the west.
warsawvoice.pl
bloomberg.com
