Świnoujście Polskie LNG Terminal

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Świnoujście Polskie LNG Terminal is an operating LNG terminal in Poland with construction work to expand the terminal's capacity taking place.

Location

The map below shows the terminal, near Świnoujście, in Świnoujście County, Województwo Province.

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Project details

• Operator: GAZ-SYSTEM S.A.
• Owner: Polskie LNG S.A.
• Parent: PGNiG (Government of Poland)
• Location: Świnoujście, Świnoujście County, Województwo Province, Poland
• Coordinates: 53.909167, 14.294722 (exact)
• Capacity: 5 billion cubic meters per year / 3.7 mpta
• Cost: €950 million (US$1.1 billion)
• Financing: €133 million (US$189.9 million) loan from the European Investment Bank; €75 million (US$94.7 million) loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; €311 million (US$377.46 million) equity investment by Gaz-System; €121.8 million (US$147.6 million) grant from the European Structural Funds and a €65.3 million (US$79.12 million) grant from the European Commission
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start year: 2016

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Świnoujście Polskie LNG Terminal is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal in Poland. The plant is owned by Gaz-System, a subsidiary of state-owned energy firm PGNiG. Front-end engineering was conducted by SNC Lavalin, and the construction contract was carried out by a consortium of six firms, led by Saipem.

Construction began in March 2011, and the terminal was brought online in October 2015. Discussions of the terminal began as early as 2006, and funding was secured in March 2010, which is presumed to be the final investment decision date. Identified debt, equity and public grant financing for the terminal totalled US$888 million.

Pipeline Connections

The terminal is connected to the Baltic Pipeline, a bidirectional gas pipeline connecting Poland to Denmark and allowing Poland to receive up to 10 bcm of Norwegian gas each year (3bcm/y could flow in the opposite direction), while, on the other hand Russian gas and excess gas from the terminal can go to Denmark.

Expansion project

Expansion

• Owner: Polskie LNG S.A.
• Parent: PGNiG (Government of Poland)
• Location: Świnoujście, Świnoujście County, Województwo Province, Poland
• Coordinates: 53.909167, 14.294722 (exact)
• Capacity: 1.2 billion cubic meters per year
• Cost: €427 million (US$483 million) for the overall expansion
• Financing: A €130 million (US$157 million) grant from the European Regional Development Fund
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2022

In April 2017, the plant's owners approved a plan to expand the plant by 50%, by adding a second berth and a third storage tank. In January 2019 Polski LNG announced that it had obtained environmental and location permits for the expansion.

According to Food and Water Europe's 2019 profile of Poland's gas use and production, "... between the 2nd half of 2016 and March 2019, the terminal was only used at under 40% of its capacities. At a time when LNG plants are lying idle (all EU terminals have worked at less than 25% of their capacity since 2012) and when many energy analysts believe that 'gas delivered by tanker will never be able to compete with gas delivered by pipeline,' it seems irresponsible to extend (especially with tax payers money) the capacities of a terminal which has just been commissioned and therefore not yet demonstrated its commercial viability. Nevertheless, the extension project was included in the 3rd list and applied for the 4th PCI list. On top of this, Poland also discusses a second LNG import terminal, the Polish Baltic Sea Coast Terminal.

In October 2019, the European Commission announced that it had approved a €130 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund for the project's expansion. The announcement was criticised by environmental groups. Frida Kieninger, from Food & Water Europe, said, "The climate emergency cannot be solved by supporting dozens more fossil gas projects. This fourth list of priority EU energy projects completely contradicts the Commission’s stated aim of decarbonising our economy."

Construction appears to have begun in February 2021.

In January 2022, owner PGNiG confirmed that the first phase of the terminal's expansion had been completed, raising annual capacity from 5 bcm/y to 6.2 bcm/y.

Expansion 2 Project Details

• Owner: Polskie LNG S.A.
• Parent: PGNiG (Government of Poland)
• Location: Świnoujście, Świnoujście County, Województwo Province, Poland
• Coordinates: 53.909167, 14.294722 (exact)
• Capacity: 2.1 billion cubic meters per year
  • This capacity is presumed, as it represents the difference between the 7.5 billion cubic meters per year capacity of the original terminal and first expansion, and the 8.3 billion cubic meters per year planned for with the second expansion
• Status: Construction
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2024
  • Formerly 2023

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Expansion 2 Background

In June 2020, a US$483 million contract was signed to expand the Świnoujście terminal to a capacity of 8.3 billion cubic metres by 2023. Increasing domestic demand, as Poland begins to wean itself off coal-fired power production, and reducing the country’s reliance on Russian gas were touted as the reasons for finalising the expansion agreement. This second expansion is expected to be operational in 2023. Construction appears to have begun in February 2021.

According to the June 2024 GIIGNL report, construction is ongoing and scheduled for completion later in 2024.

Financing

The international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright disclosed in July 2020 that it had advised a consortium of ten banks on the US$ 1.4 billion financing for Gaz-System which will be used as a stable source of funding for projects by the company to implement its 2020-2025 investment strategy, including the expansion of the Świnoujście Polskie LNG Terminal and the Baltic Pipe Project. The banks involved in the financing are: Alior Bank S.A., Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Bank Millennium S.A., Bank of China (Luxembourg) S.A. Oddział w Polsce, BNP Paribas Bank Polska S.A., CaixaBank, S.A. (Spółka Akcyjna) Oddzial w Polsce, China Construction Bank (Europe) S.A. (Spółka Akcyjna) Oddział w Polsce, Credit Agricole Bank Polska S.A., mBank S.A. and Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski S.A.