Polish PGNiG to increase gas storage by 25% as part of energy security

WARSAW, June 30 (Reuters) – The Polish PGNiG (PGN.WA) plans to expand its gas storage capacity by 25% to 4 billion cubic meters, it said on Thursday, as the biggest country in the European Union’s eastern wing seeks to bolster its energy security .

The country’s existing gas storage facilities are 97% full, but the current storage capacity of 3.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) is relatively small compared to an annual consumption of around 20 bcm.

With winter consumption sometimes amounting to around 2 billion cubic meters of gas per month, Warsaw now plans to expand its gas reservoir to Wierzchowice in western Poland.

“The expansion of the gas storage facility in Wierzchowice will significantly improve Poland’s energy security,” PGNiG chief executive Iwona Waksmundzka-Olejniczak said in a statement.

“It will make us more resilient to crises like the one we are currently facing in Europe.”

Poland and Bulgaria were the first European countries to be cut off from Russian gas in April.

Warsaw had taken steps to diversify its supplies before war-related tensions in Ukraine upset European energy markets.

Despite the reduction in Russian gas supplies to Europe, the balance of the Polish gas market is supported by a liquefied natural gas terminal operating at full capacity and weaker summer demand in a context of high prices.

Poland does not plan to initiate a 12-step emergency procedure to safeguard energy supply that would lead to gas rationing, the climate ministry said on Friday, a day after Germany moved to the second “alarm” stage of its own three-stage emergency. gas regime. Read more

Reporting by Gdansk Newsroom, Alan Charlish, Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Jan Harvey

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