The 5,000th LNG tanker truck, scheduled to set off from the Świnoujście terminal on Saturday, August 10th, will also be the 1,144th this year. Year on year, the number of tankers dispatched from the terminal rose by 24% (figures as at August 9th 2018 and August 9th 2019). PGNiG imports liquefied natural gas from Qatar, Norway and the United States.

Most of it is regasified and fed into the nationwide transmission and distribution networks. However, some of the gas remains in a liquid state and is delivered to customers in tanker trucks and cryogenic containers.

“Natural gas is rapidly gaining in popularity in Poland. Tanker trucks are capable of delivering LNG to places where there is no transmission infrastructure or where the infrastructure is insufficient to meet local needs. Liquefied natural gas can accelerate rollout of the gas network in Poland,” says Maciej Woźniak, Vice President of the PGNiG Management Board for Trade.

LNG is purchased from PGNiG by customers in the food processing and hospitality sectors.  However, most of the LNG from the Świnoujście terminal (55%) is supplied to regasification stations that feed off-grid ‘island’ gas networks, which typically serve a single town or village. Once the LNG is warmed to return to its gaseous state, it is supplied through a local network of distribution pipelines to end customers, including businesses, institutions and households.

One such network is located in Mońki in the Białystok Province. Polska Spółka Gazownictwa (PSG), a PGNiG Group subsidiary, opened a regasification station in Mońki in April 2019.

“The project is a prerequisite for the town’s economic development. Environmental standards for industry are increasingly stringent. To be able to meet them, businesses need to be provided with access to gas for energy and process needs. Before the regasification station in Mońki was launched, several potential investors had withdrawn on the news that the municipality was not connected to the gas network,” explains Zbigniew Karwowski, Mayor of Mońki. “Access to natural gas is important to local residents as well. The blue fuel has enabled us to phase out sources of heat that pollute the air.

Besides Mońki, PSG operates ‘island’ gas networks in three other locations in the Białystok Province. Seven more will be built by the end of 2022, with plans to roll out the project in other parts of Poland. Under the Programme for Accelerating the Gas Network Rollout in Poland in 2018–2022, PSG wants 90% of Poland’s residents to have access to natural gas by 2022. Building 77 new regasification stations will be a vital element of this plan. Including the existing stations, 84 PSG-owned regasification stations serving off-grid networks are to be operational by the end of 2022.