Page 6 - FSUOGM Week 19 2022

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

gas around the greater region with the help of move to halt supply to the country in late April
an interconnector to Bulgaria that is due to start in reponse to Warsaw refusing to comply with
flowing later this year, and other cross-border the Kremlin’s decree on ruble payments for gas.
links across the area. In any case, gas flow was just launched through
Nearby, Croatia launched its 6.75 bcm per a new link between Poland and Lithuania, and
year Krk LNG terminal at the start of 2021, and Baltic Pipe will start bringing Norwegian gas to
has proposed adding extra capacity before the Poland this autumn, if the schedule is kept.
end of the decade. Cyprus is awaiting the com- However, LNG also plays a role in Poland’s
pletion of the 2.55 bcm per year Vasiliko LNG plan to replace Russian gas. It plans to expand
terminal in 2023, although this plant may be the 5.5 bcm per year Swinoujscie LNG termi-
converted to export gas if Croatia’s offshore gas nal by a further 2.1 bcm per year by 2023, and
potential is exploited. it intends to construct a second, 6.1 bcm per
After years of resisting the EU’s phase-out year regasification facility in Gdansk two years
of coal-fired power, Poland embraced natural after that.
gas several years ago, but simultaneously began The UK, meanwhile, is set to expand the Isle
efforts to phase out Russian gas imports com- of Grain LNG terminal in southern England by
pletely by the end of 2022, when its long-term 5 bcm per year by 2025. But given that its existing
supply contract with Gazprom is due to expire. LNG terminals are underutilised, this is the only
Poland may have severed energy ties with Rus- expansion in the country’s regasification capacity
sia sooner than it anticipated, after Gazprom’s that is on the cards.. ™

PIPELINES & TRANSPORT

Ukraine needs access to LNG

capacity: gas grid head

UKRAINE ACCESS to LNG terminals will be key for following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. Since
Ukraine to address its energy needs, the head then it relied on domestic supply, and imports
Ukraine has access of its gas transmission system operator said on from neighbouring Hungary, Poland and Slova-
to LNG regasification May 9. kia, although much of this imported gas has in
capacity in Croatia, Ukraine already has access to LNG import fact originated in Russia.
Poland and Lithuania. capacity in Poland as well as in Croatia and Ukraine’s options are more limited now, since
Lithuania, Sergiy Makogon, the director gen- Russia cut off gas supply to Poland in late April
eral of Gas Transmission System Operator of after Warsaw’s refusal to pay for shipments in
Ukraine (GTSOU) said on national television. rubles. However, imports through Poland from
The country has been buying small amounts of Lithuana’s Klaipeda regasification terminal also
US LNG that is delivered to Poland’s Swinoujs- became possible after the launch of a gas link this
cie LNG terminal since 2019. But infrastructure week at the Polish-Lithuanian border.
at the Polish-Ukrainian border will need to be Ukraine is also looking forward to the com-
expanded to increase shipments. pletion of the Poland-Slovakia interconnector
Ukraine has not bought any gas directly from this summer, which will boost its access to LNG
Russia since 2015, when it halted purchases after being brought ashore in north Europe even fur-
relations between the two countries collapsed ther. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 19 11•May•2022