The Polish government supports the Baltic Pipe is a strategic project that helps diversify the country’s sources of gas supply - an increasingly pressing issue due to the May 17 expiry of the Yamal pipeline transit agreement with the Russian major Gazprom. In addition, a long-term gas supply contract between Poland’s state gas company PGNiG and Gazprom will come to an end on December 31, 2022.
Diversifying supply
Eager to ensure supply security, PGNiG arranged bi-directional gas flows and expanded several interconnectors with Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, increased from 97 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in 2010 to 242 MMcf/d in 2019. Four years ago, Poland also started to import LNG through the 0.5 Bcf/d LNG Polskie LNG terminal in Świnoujście, located on the Baltic Sea near the Polish-German border.
As a consequence, Poland managed to reduce its reliance on Russian gas imports from 90% to less than 60% over the past decade. Ten years ago, Russian gas imports accounted for 90% of imports and more than 63% of Poland’s supply, but these volumes fell to 60% of all imports and 48% of the total consumption.
The Baltic Pipe will open up an entirely new supply source for Poland – natural gas from Norway.
Falling domestic production, rising demand
Poland’s domestic gas production has been in continuous decline over the past decade, falling to 0.4 Bcf/d or 20% of total supply in 2019, while consumption gas grown by over 30% over the same period, rising from 1.4 Bcf/d in 2010 to currently just over 1.8 Bcf/d.
The rise in gas demand has been caused by Poland’s main utilities having added more than 13,000 miles of domestic distribution and trunk lines to connect millions of industrial, residential, and commercial consumers to the national gas grid.