“Poland's fuel and energy security is our priority focus, of which uninterrupted supply of natural gas is an essential component. For this reason, in response to energy supply challenges across Europe, we have stepped up imports of liquefied natural gas. Following planned expansion of the Świnoujście terminal, from 2024 we will be able to import as much as 8.3 billion cubic metres of gas delivered by sea annually,” says Daniel Obajtek, CEO and President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board.

LNG deliveries to the Świnoujście terminal have been a pillar of Poland’s gas import diversification strategy since it was embarked on. The share of sea deliveries in the total supply of natural gas has been on a steadily upward trend. In 2016 LNG accounted for barely 8% of foreign gas supplies to PGNiG, but that share rose to more than 24% in 2021.

The total volume of gas imported via the terminal since its launch has reached about 21 billion cubic metres of regasified LNG. Qatar remains the main supplier of LNG to Świnoujście, with 110 cargoes having arrived from that country to date. 72 shipments have arrived from the US, followed by Norway (13 shipments), Nigeria (3 shipments) and Trinidad and Tobago (2 shipments). In the years to come, under long-term contracts executed between PGNiG of the ORLEN Group and US LNG producers, US supplies are set to top that list.

The vessel received at the President Lech Kaczyński terminal was Seapeak Creole, carrying a cargo of about 75 thousand tonnes of LNG from the US, equivalent to about 95 million cubic metres of natural gas in the gaseous state. This was the 200th LNG shipment to the Świnoujście terminal since it was placed in service in late 2015 and early 2016. The first two cargoes received at that time were used for technical commissioning of the port’s infrastructure. The first commercial delivery was unloaded in June 2016.

The growing rate of LNG imports to Poland can be seen in increasingly shorter intervals between deliveries. The 50th LNG shipment arrived at Świnoujście in January 2019, three years after the terminal’s launch. The 100th delivery arrived one and a half years later – in July 2020. Afterwards it only took 28 months for the port to see the 200th delivery, a period almost twice shorter than in the case of the 100th shipment (54 months), of which 52 cargoes have been received in 2022 alone.