PGNiG Says LNG Growing Faster than Russian Gas
Polish state-run gas importer PGNiG reported August 3 that its contractual LNG import volumes from Qatar, Norway and the USA grew ten times higher than the growth of its gas imports from Russia.
The absolute rise in its gas purchases from Russia was exceeded by that of LNG imports, it added.
Between January and July 2018, PGNiG imported 0.6bn m3 more LNG on a year-on-year basis, an increase of 60%. Gas imports from Russia during the same period grew by less than 0.4bn m3, an increase of just 6%.
In its English statement issued August 4, PGNIG added that the volatility in its annual Russian gas import is not a result of any long-term contract amendments. Annual import volumes must always exceed a minimal level imposed by Gazprom under a take-or-pay clause, and they need to be smaller than maximum annual volumes agreed years ago in the long-term import contract, set to expire in 2022.
PGNiG also said that between January and July 2018 the share of Russian gas in PGNiG’s import structure decreased again and currently stands at 75% - down two percentage points year-on-year. LNG now stands at 19% of total imports contracted by PGNiG, an increase from 13%.
It hinted that Gazprom had been over-emphasising the extent of its dominance of the Polish market, noting: “PGNiG suggests a cautious approach to the scope of and manner in which Gazprom shares information regarding natural gas sales to Poland, especially that for a few years now Russia has not been the sole source of gas imports to Poland.”
Indigenous Polish gas production accounts for 25% of Polish demand, despite an increase in Polish consumption from 15bn m3 in 2015 to 17bn m3 in 2017, it said.
From the end of 2022 gas will be imported to Poland directly from Norway via Denmark, PGNiG added, while starting 2022 PGNiG will have an annual portfolio of over 4mn mt (5.5bn m3) US LNG.