Page 10 - GLNG Week 37
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Poland hints at stopping purchases of Russian gas altogether
POLICY
POLAND sees “no need” to buy liquefied natu- ral gas (LNG) from Russia and expects to notify Moscow by the end of the year it will not renew its current long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom, a government official said on Sep- tember 18.
Poland appears determined to wean itself off Russian gas as soon as possible, as it has long seen its dependence on the eastern neighbour a liabil- ity. Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and Moscow’s anti-Polish interpretation of the history of the Second World War are not helping, either.
Poland finally has the infrastructure to reduce dependence on Russian gas. The country built an LNG terminal in the western town of Swinoujs- cie. The terminal’s capacity is currently 5bn cubic metres (bcm) but Warsaw plans to expand it to 7.5 bcm.
More investments to boost Poland’s capacity to receive gas from sources other than Russia planned. Poland aims to build another LNG ter- minal in Gdansk that will handle 4 bcm of LNG, starting in 2025. Construction of the Baltic Pipe to pump some 10 bcm from Norway is expected
to kick off in 2020, with the pipeline to begin operations in 2022.
With an estimated 4 bcm of domestic pro- duction to add to imports via terminals and the Baltic Pipe, Poland expects to secure covering its demand for around 17 bcm of natural gas annu- ally by 2022. That year, Warsaw’s long-term gas supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom expires and Poland keeps hinting it will not be renewed.
“Just now Poland has a chance to free itself from a dominant supplier, which is Gazprom,” Piotr Naimski, the government’s proxy for strate- gic energy infrastructure, told Reuters.
Spain sees LNG imports surge on demand growth
PERFORMANCE
SPAIN saw imports of LNG and piped gas from France surge in August, on the back of strong demand, according to data published by Span- ish gas grid operator Enagas on September 13.
Spain has seen gas demand soar this year as a result of warmer weather and reduced supply of coal-fired electricity and hydropower. LNG imports have also been buoyed by expanding global supply and weaker demand in Asia.
Spain’s LNG imports surged by 86.4% year on year to 26.1 TWh in August, with shipments from Russia, Qatar and Nigeria all rising. Qatar was the country’s largest LNG supplier during the month, boosting deliveries by 129% y/y to 7.3 TWh. Russian supplies stayed firm at 5.4 TWh, while Nigerian cargoes came in at 4.9 TWh.
By contrast, US LNG imports slumped to 0.98 TWh, after seeing record levels in the first half of the year. Other volumes came from Trin- idad & Tobago (2.6 TWh), Belgium (2.1 TWh),
Angola (1 TWh), Algeria (0.995 TWh) and Nor- way (0.869 TWh).
Meanwhile, piped French supplies to Spain soared to 4.5 TWh, up from 2.3 TWh a year ear- lier, because of a larger price differential between the two countries, as well as demand growth. French gas took market share away from Alge- ria, which saw piped volumes slump 46.4% to 7.4 TWh.
Demand for gas in Spanish power gener- ation has increased by 95% so far this year to 73.1 TWh, driving up national consumption by 16% to a new height of 263.1 TWh. A key fac- tor behind this growth has been record summer temperatures, which have resulted in greater use of air-conditioning systems in Spain this year. The heat wave also led to lower water lev- els at hydroelectric dams. In addition, Enagas has attributed greater gas use to Spain’s ongoing drive to phase out coal as well as its strong indus- trial performance.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 37 19•September•2019
