Page 7 - Euroil Week 08 2020

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Poland signs contract to expand LNG terminal in Swinoujscie
POLAND
The expansion will raise the terminal’s import capacity from 5.0 to 7.4 bcm per year.
POLAND’S gas grid operator Gaz-System contracted a consortium of PORR and TGE to carry out an expansion of the LNG ter- minal in Swinoujscie, Gaz-System said on February 24.
The terminal is central to Poland’s grand plan of weaning itself off dependency on Russian gas, which Warsaw claims is a geopolitical vulnera- bility. The terminal, operational since late 2015, can currently handle 5bn cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas. Following expansion, the capacity will grow from 5.0 to 7.5 bcm in 2021, Gaz Sys- tem said.
“Thanks to this investment, we are increas- ing the level of energy security of our coun- try,” Piotr Naimski, the government’s proxy for strategic energy infrastructure, said in a statement.
The terminal has seen record use, partly because of low international LNG prices, taking ashore 2.48 bcm of gas in January to September, up 27% year on year. These supplies covered 23% of Polish demand over the period, versus 18% a
year earlier.
In contrast, Russian imports fell 21% in the
first nine months of 2019, totalling 6.29 bcm. They met 58% of Polish consumption, compared with 75% in the same period a year earlier. Rus- sian supplies bounced back in the final quarter, though, with full-year shipments totalling 9.73 bcm, down only 1.3%.
Poland also plans construction of another 4 bcm per year import terminal in Gdansk. Poland’s Baltic Pipe project should also be up and running by 2022, carrying up to 10 bcm per year of gas from PGNiG’s fields off Norway to Poland via Denmark.
Also in 2022, Poland’s long-term supply con- tract with Gazprom expires. Warsaw has said a number of times it will not renew it.
In addition to Baltic Pipe, Poland has also revealed a project to build a second LNG import terminal in Gdansk. Beyond covering domestic demand, it wants to transit some LNG cargoes to other countries such as Ukraine and Roma- nia. ™
Hungary, Slovakia sign deal on gas link
HUNGARY
The pipeline would carry gas via the TurkStream project.
HUNGARY and Slovakia signed a memoran- dum of understanding (MoU) on February 21 on expanding a cross-border gas pipeline.
The document was signed by Hungarian For- eign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto and Slovak Economy Minister Peter Ziga. It calls for the two countries to work together to enlarge their gas interconnector to flow up to 5.3bn cubic metres of gas each year. At present, the pipeline can only pump a maximum of 4.5 bcm per year in the direction of Hungary, and 1.8 bcm in the direction of Slovakia.
The 13-km link was launched in 2015, pro- viding both countries with greater gas supply security. Its expansion will help Hungary pump excess gas from the 31.5 bcm per year Turk- Stream pipeline to Slovakia. Both countries are major buyers of Russian gas, with Slovakia importing 6.4 bcm and Hungary 10.5 bcm last year, up 26% and 42% year on year respectively.
TurkStream saw progress last week, when Serbian regulator AERS adopted a decision to certify a Gazprom subsidiary, Gastrans, as the operator of its section through Serbia. Gastrans is 51% owned by Gazprom and 49% by Serbia’s Srbijagas.
Serbia began construction of the pipeline in May and its energy ministry later claimed it would be ready to flow gas by the end of last year. There have been no announcements on progress, however.
Bulgaria has similarly taken longer than anticipated to move forward with TurkStream, partly because of delays in choosing a contractor. Russian President Vladimir Putin even accused Sofia of deliberately stalling work on the project, and threatened to reroute the pipeline around Bulgaria.
Hungary too has taken its time in preparing its grid for TurkStream. It does not anticipate receiving its gas until late 2021.
The expansion of Hungary and Slovakia’s gas connection has been listed as an EU Project of Common Interest (PCI), meaning it should be able to access grants from the European Commission and potentially loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB), depending on how quickly the project moves ahead. The EIB pledged in November to halt all fossil fuel financing after 2021, weakening prospects for a number of planned gas infrastructure projects in Europe. ™
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