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.

Denmark, the pipeline natural gas and power market player involved in LNG trading and a bridge supplier of gas to Poland on the Baltic Pipe, has revealed plans for increased power prices and methods of making energy savings.

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.

June 25 (LNGJ) - Poland signed contracts worth $483 million to expand the LNG import terminal at Swinoujscie on the Baltic Sea coast to 6 million tonnes per annum of capacity from the current 3.7 MTPA by 2023. The contract was signed on the Polish side by network operator Gaz-System and the ports of Szczecin and Swinoujscie and on the engineering side by the two contractors, Porr AG of Germany and Bonn-based European LNG specialists TGE Gas Engineering.

   State-run Poland Oil and Gas Company has said it does not intend to extend its long-term pipeline gas supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom beyond 2022 when it expires.