The start-up of Poland’s liquefied natural gas import terminal in Świnoujście has been delayed once again, according to several media reports.
The Polish Radio News Agency (IAR) reported that Treasury Minister Włodzimierz Karpiński, who commissioned a report on the progress of the construction of the LNG terminal, will soon officially announce that the terminal will be completed no earlier than 2015.
The LNG terminal was originally set for completion in June of 2014, but that date was later pushed back to the end of the same year.
The delay could become a big problem for Poland’s PGNiG, which has a contract with Qatargas for the delivery of 1.5 bcm of LNG annually during a period of 20 years from 2014.
The facility’s initial regasification capacity is designed to amount to 5 bcm, although the terminal is expected to expand its capacity up to 7.5 bcm by means of construction of the third cryogenic tank, and thus, satisfy approximately 50 percent of the current annual demand for gas in Poland.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, September 3, 2013; Image: Polskie LNG