“To date, we could only buy Russian gas. June 17th 2016 marks the first ever commercial delivery of non-Russian gas to Poland,” said Piotr Woźniak, President of the Management Board of PGNiG SA.

Under a long-term contract with Qatargas, around 1.3 billion cubic metres of gas (after regasification) will be supplied annually from Qatar. “We are the largest user of the LNG terminal in Świnoujście, with around 65% of its capacity currently reserved for PGNiG,” stressed Maciej Woźniak, PGNiG Vice-President for Trade.

Another LNG shipment from Qatar is due in mid-July 2016, as scheduled in the annual plan for deliveries, agreed between PGNiG and Qatargas. Supplies will be distributed evenly over a year, for instance in the second half of 2016, one delivery a month is scheduled.

“Gradually, supplies under the Qatar contract will be supplemented with additional volumes under spot contracts, allowing us to optimise the sources and price terms of gas supplies, while regular deliveries will continue to be received under long-term contracts,” explained Maciej Woźniak.

The first consignment under a spot contract (with Statoil) is due on June 25th 2016. Approximately 140 thousand cubic metres of LNG (84 million cubic metres of grid gas) will be delivered from the Norwegian port of Melkøya by the Arctic Princess ship.

The President Lech Kaczyński LNG Terminal is a key component of the strategy of real diversification of gas supplies to Poland. The terminal’s initial annual capacity of 5 billion cubic metres represents approximately one-third of Poland’s demand. After extension, the terminal will be able to handle up to 7.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually. It is also the first facility of this kind in Central Europe. Thanks to development of the interconnection system, Poland’s neighbouring countries as well as countries located south of Poland will be able to gain access to non-Russian gas. Such scenario would justify a further increase in Poland’s LNG importing capacities.

The idea to build an LNG terminal was first proposed by the late President Lech Kaczyński during a meeting of the Polish National Security Council on May 22nd 2006. Work on the project commenced under the direction of Piotr Woźniak (the then Minister of Economy, currently President of the Management Board of PGNiG SA) and Piotr Naimski (the then Deputy Minister of Economy, currently Government Proxy for Strategic Energy Infrastructure). The government headed by Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, which commenced the project, envisaged its completion in 2012.