Poland plans to limit the volumes of natural gas imports from a single supplier to 70 percent of the total import volumes into the country.
The initial restriction could start from April this year, Reuters reports, citing the Polish energy ministry.
The cap would be reduced to one-third of the total natural gas import volumes by 2023 in Poland’s constant efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on Russian natural gas as well as to keep in line with the European Union law.
Polish existing law on gas imports is not compatible with the European Union’s law since it was introduced before the country joined the union. Under the current EU law, gas received from other member states can’t be regarded as imports.
Ministry added that the current regulations foresee an imports cap of 49 percent in 2019-2020 without defining the term “imports” which could hinder the full use of the President Lech Kaczynski LNG terminal in Swinoujscie.
The ministry is proposing to exclude the reverse gas flows from Germany into Poland as well as imports via the LNG terminal.
Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG), responsible for securing LNG imports, signed a side agreement with Qatargas in addition to the existing 20-year contract it signed with the Qatari company back in 2009.
Under the terms of the new agreement, Qatargas will increase the volume of LNG currently supplied to PGNiG to two million tons per annum.
(Article corrected on 24.03.2017 to say that Poland plans to restrict natural gas supplies not LNG imports)
LNG World News Staff