Poland’s dominant gas firm PGNiG said that liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports via the country’s regasification facility in Swinoujscie rose about 33 percent in the first half of this year.
According to PGNiG’s second-quarter results report, LNG imports reached 2.72 billion cubic meters in the January-July period. This compares to 2.04 bcm in the same period last year.
In the first quarter, LNG imports rose about 34 percent year-on-year to 1.07 bcm, while in the second quarter they increased almost 33 percent to 1.64 bcm.
PGNiG unloaded 16 LNG carriers at the Swinoujscie LNG terminal in the second quarter, including four deliveries under Qatargas contracts, two deliveries under the Centrica contract, one delivery under the Cheniere contract, and nine spot deliveries, it said.
Besides the Swinoujscie facility, PGNiG this year also received three LNG cargoes via the Klaipedos Nafta-operated FSRU-based facility in Lithuania’s port of Klaipeda
The first half of 2022 witnessed a “radical shift” in the structure of PGNiG’s foreign gas supply sources.
PGNiG said the share of gas imports from across Poland’s eastern border shrank to 37 percent, from 58 percent a year earlier, while the share of LNG imports rose to 34 percent, compared with 25 percent in the same period of 2021.
In April, Russia’s Gazprom had cut supplies to Poland via the Yamal pipeline, prompting PGNiG to boost LNG imports.
The growth of LNG imports was possible due to the expansion of Gaz System’s facility in Swinoujscie, where the firm has booked a regasification capacity of 6.2 bcm per annum since this year. This is some 1.2 bcm more than before.
Thanks to further investments, the capacity will increase to 8.3 bcm of gas per year in 2024 and PGNiG has booked all of these volumes as well.