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facility. more fuel on concerns over war-related increase, Gaspol’s CEO also said.
One of the tenders is for the supply of supply disruptions.
materials and equipment, as well as for Indeed, the risk of disruption remains
the construction of additional facilities high. However, given its proximity to the Slovenia sets maximum
that would allow the expansion of Chiren’s war and its reliance on Russian gas, Europe
capacity. This project is estimated at finds itself more vulnerable to potential prices for fuel
BGN300mn. Bids for this project can be gas flow interruptions. In the longer term,
filed until April 20. the European Union is committed to The Slovenian government said on March
The second tender is for the investment dramatically reducing its dependence on 14 it has set a maximum price for certain
project for building a gas network that Russian gas, which could help drive further petroleum products due to the rising prices
would link Chiren to Bulgartransgaz’s gas price increases. And if gas prices are of fuel at filling stations following the
gas distribution network. This project is significantly higher in Europe over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
estimated to cost BGN820,000. Investors coming months and beyond, Sinopec and The government opted for the measure
can file offers until April 8. other Chinese buyers could seek to resell due to disruptions in the petroleum products
Following the expansion, the capacity more of their scheduled LNG cargoes. market and large fluctuations in non-
of the Chiren storage will reach 1bn cubic seasonal prices.
metres (bcm) from the current 550mn The retail price of 95-octane unleaded
cubic metres. This is expected to stimulate Polish LPG supplier Gaspol petrol is set at €1.503 per litre and the
the diversification of gas supplies and price of diesel is set at €1.541 per litre, the
increase competition. stops Russian purchases government said in the statement.
The prices will remain in force for a
Gaspol, a Polish supplier of liquefied period of 30 days.
China resells US LNG petroleum gas (LPG), used in cars and for these two types of fuel was determined
The maximum permitted retail price
households that are not connected to the
cargoes to Europe gas grid, has stopped purchasing Russian- on the basis of the last seven-day average
representative price of petroleum products in
made LPG in reaction to Russia’s military
China is reported to have resold a aggression against Ukraine, the company Slovenia.
handful of US LNG cargoes to Europe as said on March 14. The move came after a group of
price trends and Russia’s war in Ukraine Gaspol joins a long list of companies that opposition and unaffiliated deputies filed
continue to reroute trade flows. European have withdrawn from Russia or otherwise a bill on regulation of prices of petroleum
gas typically trades at a discount to LNG limited their involvement with the Russian products last week.
in North Asia, but the reversal of this is market by means of boycotting Russian
prompting changes of plans among buyers products or halting investment plans.
and sellers of LNG as well. “In the face of Russia’s military aggression Price of gas for households in
Citing traders familiar with the matter, against Ukraine, Gaspol decided to stop
Bloomberg reported on March 15 that purchasing LPG produced in Russia,” the Croatia to rise 16% as of April
state-owned Sinopec, via its Unipec company said in a statement.
trading arm, had sold at least three cargoes Gaspol is owned by Dutch company Croatia’s energy regulator HERA said
for delivery between now and June to SHV, which “decided to suspend all new that the price of natural gas for Croatian
European buyers. The cargoes were sold investment projects in Russia, exports to this households will increase by 16% as of April
through a tender that closed late last week, country and fully complied with all sanctions due to a 141% jump of the price of natural
according to the traders. imposed on Russia and Belarus”. gas supplied to the country.
This marks the continuation of a trend Gaspol is giving up on 20%-30% of The average gas price for households will
that emerged at the start of this year, the overall volume of LPG supplies, the be HRK0.3791 (€0.05) per kWh, up from
whereby Chinese oil and gas companies are company’s CEO Sylwester Smigiel told the current HRK0.3259.
seeking to resell excess cargoes of LNG in newspaper Puls Biznesu. HERA also noted that the price would
markets where they would fetch a higher But Russia’s role in meeting Poland’s have jumped to HRK0.5763 per kWh if
price. LPG demand is much higher. Polish LPG the government had not adopted a set of
The shipments are due to be loaded consumption was 2.34mn tonnes in 2020, measures aimed at reducing the impact of
from the Calcasieu Pass terminal on out of which 530,000 tonnes was domestic surging energy prices.
the US Gulf Coast, operated by Venture production. Of the remaining 2.04mn The government has decided to cut the
Global LNG, with which Sinopec has an tonnes, Russia supplied 65% or 1.33mn value added tax (VAT) on natural gas to 5%
offtake agreement. This represents a new tonnes. as of April from current 25%. The lower VAT
development in Chinese resales of LNG Other, much smaller, source countries will be implemented until end-March 2023.
cargoes, as previously reported resales were are Sweden, Lithuania, Belarus – Russia’s After that, it will go up to 13%.
shipped – or are still due to be shipped – ally, which is also on the radar for boycotts The cost of gas delivery from April 1, 2022
from China. and government-level sanctions – and to March 31, 2023 would total HRK0.3425
The tender came after European gas Kazakhstan. per kWh, compared to HRK0.1422 currently.
prices surged to record highs on fears of Smigiel thinks that Poland will manage In the first quarter of 2023, the final price
a disruption in Russian gas flows to the well without Russian LPG by utilising more of gas will be 0.3% higher compared to the
continent. Prices then declined as flows of its LPG terminals in Gdansk, Gdynia, and prices from April 1 to December 31, 2022 as
remained stable, and Asian LNG price Szczecin, Poland’s main seaports. the cost of gas distribution will change.
trends have tracked European gas prices. The cost of importing LPG from other
Unipec held the tender despite Beijing countries will likely be higher by $30-$40
calling on Chinese importers to secure per tonne, which is not an economic-defying

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