Polish Storage Rules Bad for Market: Traders

The Polish government's plan to lift storage obligations only from LNG imports risks further distorting the market, the European Federation of Energy Traders (Efet) said August 25. It said the change would only benefit the incumbent, PGNiG, which has rights to all the country's LNG import capacity and already dominates the national gas market.

It said that the importers' obligation to reserve capacity in storage should either be lifted altogether, or redesigned so that the benefits of the additional security of supply were paid for by those who benefited from it.

Efet said also that the Polish proposal does not address the concerns raised by the European Commission in its reasoned opinion [November 2019] and that as a result, competition in the wholesale market will remain highly limited.

With storage products inside the country being non-flexible and more expensive than in the neighbouring countries, the obligation to hold gas in storage has severely impacted the wholesale market, Efet said.

But Efet's suggested alternative solutions that would protect the competitiveness of the Polish market have not been accepted. It  said, as "market concentration in gas has returned to high levels," it looked forward to the publication of an amended Act that would ensure Poland's compliance with the EU acquis and bring the Polish gas market back on the development path... We hope that nearly a year after the EC issued a reasoned opinion, Polish authorities will offer tangible solutions that would reopen the Polish gas market and for solutions to be consulted with all stakeholders."