Poland’s dominant gas firm PGNiG said it had taken delivery of 46 LNG cargoes or about 51.9 TWh in the January-September period, a rise of more than 60 percent when compared to the last year.
Out of these cargoes, PGNiG imported 40 LNG shipments via Poland’s Swinoujscie LNG terminal and six cargoes via the Klaipedos Nafta-operated FSRU-based facility in Lithuania.
PGNiG is in charge for all of the LNG supplies to the Swinoujscie facility, operated by Gaz-System, while it started using KN’s facility in Klaipeda in May this year with the first LNG cargo from the US.
The Polish firm recently also booked capacity at the Klaipeda facility for a period of six years. The firm took 6 TWh per year, or over 0.5 billion cubic meters of gas after regasification.
17 LNG cargoes in Q3
PGNiG imported 17 LNG cargoes during the July-September period. These include 14 shipments in Swinoujscie and three cargoes in Klaipeda.
The last delivery in the third quarter of this year, made in late September, came from Qatar.
PGNiG said the 217,000-cbm Q-Flex LNG tanker, Al Huwaila, had delivered 120 mcm of gas after regasification to the Swinoujscie terminal under the contract with Qatargas.
The largest number of shipments made in the third quarter came from the United States.
Most of the gas from that market was purchased under spot contracts, according to PGNiG.
In the third quarter, PGNiG received about 1.4 bcm of natural gas after regasification at the Swinoujscie terminal.
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.
High LNG imports to continue
PGNiG said it intends to maintain the high rate of LNG deliveries in the fourth quarter as well.
The first October shipment to the Swinoujście terminal arrived from Qatar.
The 216,200-cbm Q-Flex LNG tanker, Tembek, arrived at the terminal on Tuesday, October 4th.
This marked the 41st delivery to the terminal this year and the 189th since the terminal was put in operation.
“The President Lech Kaczynski LNG terminal in Swinoujscie, which has been in operation for several years now, and the Baltic Pipe, which came on stream a few days ago, are the pillars of Poland’s energy security that allow PGNiG to effectively diversify its natural gas imports,” Iwona Waksmundzka-Olejniczak, president of PGNiG’s management board, said int the statement.
“Thanks to the growing number of incoming LNG cargoes and the effective use of the regularly expanded transmission infrastructure, we are able to ensure stable supplies to customers in the coming heating season, as well as in the years to come,” she said.
