Completion of the expansion of the LNG Terminal in Świnoujście
Expansion completion ceremony LNG terminal took place on Wednesday morning in Świnoujście. Minister of Industry Marzena Czarnecka emphasized that the investment, completed in December 2024, is of strategic importance for Poland and will ensure our security and self-sufficiency.
“This investment is of strategic importance for Poland because it strengthens Poland’s security and energy independence. We are self-sufficient in gas. We do not need contact with our neighbors from the East,” Czarnecka said.
The minister assured that Donald Tusk’s government will support all investments aimed at ensuring the country’s energy independence.
The government’s plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, Wojciech Wrochna, emphasized that investments in energy infrastructure “are difficult and their implementation takes a long time.” He recalled that the decision to build a gas port in Świnoujście was made almost 20 years ago. Wrochna emphasized that Poland’s energy security is one of the government’s strategic goals. “Energy security has an economic dimension, but it also gives us independence in a political and military sense,” said Wrochna.
Wrochna reminded that the government is implementing further investments that increase energy security, including: floating LNG terminal in the Bay of Gdańsk, to be built by 2028.
Half of the Polish gas market secured
Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Arkadiusz Marchewka, in turn, said that the completed expansion “begins a new chapter in the history of the gas port.” The investment included not only the construction of the third tank, but also, among others, a second quay, which will enable mooring, berthing, loading and unloading of smaller LNG tankers; reloading of gas between tankers (so-called transhipment) and bunkering of small vessels, e.g. tugboats, using LNG as fuel.
“Thanks to the new pier, it will be possible to reload gas to other ships,” Marchewka explained. The deputy minister of infrastructure said that “Polish ports are developing the fastest in the European Union.” He noted that the government by 30 percent increased spending on port development. He recalled that offshore wind energy will also be created thanks to the expanded port infrastructure.
The president of the management board of Gaz System, Sławomir Hinc, explained in an interview with PAP that the second stage of the expansion of the gas port cost over PLN 1.7 billion, of which PLN 461 million was EU funding. Construction of the third tank with a capacity of 180,000. m six. (over 40 m high, 80 m in diameter) costs approximately PLN 1 billion. “In December 2024, we obtained an occupancy permit, and at the end of the year we received a certificate of conditional takeover of the terminal, based on which we started providing regasification services on January 1, also in new part of the expanded terminal,” Hinc explained
The President of Gaz-System emphasized that the Świnoujście LNG terminal will be able to regasify over 8 billion cubic meters. gas per year. “This allows us to secure half of the Polish gas market,” said Hinc.
Three tanks at the gas port – as Hinc emphasized – will allow storing an amount of gas that corresponds to “Poland’s demand for a week.”
The President of Gaz-System reminded that the gas port in Świnoujście is one of three investments that secure gas supplies to Poland, next to the gas pipeline Baltic Pipe (gas pipeline launched in 2022, connecting Poland, Denmark and Norway) and the planned floating LNG terminal in Gdańsk (capacity 6.1 billion cubic meters).
Hinc emphasized that the expansion of the gas port was carried out in “difficult times”, including war in Ukraine. He thanked “everyone who ensures the security of the terminal.”
The Mayor of Świnoujście, Joanna Agatowska, pointed out that the gas terminal is an investment carried out “above political divisions”.
LNG terminal in Świnoujście
LNG Terminal named after President Lech Kaczyński in Świnoujście is located in the outer part of the sea port in Świnoujście on Wolin Island. It was opened in December 2015. Gas transmission installations and two tanks (with a capacity of 160,000 cubic meters each) enabled the diversification of supplies of the blue fuel, ensuring Poland’s energy security. The gas port consists of a protective breakwater, a dolphin quay and a turntable for ships. The LNG terminal is connected to the natural gas transmission system by a high-pressure gas pipeline to Szczecin, commissioned in 2014.
After the expansion, the terminal’s regasification capacity will increase from 6.2 billion cubic meters. annually to 8.3 billion cubic meters. LNG carriers arrive in Świnoujście mainly from the USA and Qatar. In July last year, Gaz-System, which manages the gas port and the transmission network in the country, announced that it had already completed 300 deliveries of liquefied gas.
In 2016, LNG accounted for only approximately 8%. gas supplies from abroad. Now, gas carriers supply Poland with half of the fuel it needs by sea.
Expansion of the Terminal in Świnoujście was covered by funding from the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program 2014-2020. (PAP)