LNG

Nov 17 (LNGJ) - The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said it was suing LNG and pipeline gas importer Poland over additional costs the Poles have imposed for cross-border natural gas trading. Poland is facing the lawsuit at the European Court of Justice for imposing “restrictive measures” under its national legislation on energy companies not using Polish storage.

   Polish natural gas trading laws exclude the EU trading principle of “use it or lose it”. Instead, Poland requires gas importers and traders of gas stored outside Poland to ensure that they can deliver the total mandatory amounts of gas to the Polish national transmission or distribution network at all times, and to book firm transportation capacity into Poland just in case this may be needed. However, gas suppliers using Polish storage facilities are not subject to such restrictions and the Commission argues that this distorts the gas market.

Germany has now nationalized a former subsidiary of Russian natural gas company Gazprom that had already been taken control of by the German authorities in April as part of sanctions and energy security measures after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Asian spot liquefied natural gas cargo values adjusted to the front-month futures moving to December as Chinese demand was seen returning and European wholesale prices continued to be quoted at higher levels to Asia in the supply windows through to March 2023.

Polish Oil and Gas Company has signed a charter contract for four more LNG carriers and they will be placed into service to operate for the company’s trading unit as the Poles increase their marketing activities.

Gassco, the Norwegian natural gas pipeline operator and one of the main competitors to LNG, transported 114.2 billion cubic metres of gas during 2018 from the Norwegian Continental Shelf to mainland Europe and the UK.